Total bridges
175
Public highway bridges in Hamilton County
County profile · official public datasets
Hamilton County, NE
175 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32% rated Good, 56% Fair, 12% Poor.
- 175
- Public bridges
- 32%
- Good condition
- 12%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Hamilton County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- 72nd
- of 88 on Poor share
- 12%
- Poor-condition share
- 175
- public highway bridges
- 1965
- avg year built
Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.
Hamilton County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hamilton County ranks #72 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12%). Hamilton County, Nebraska contains 175 public highway bridges. Roughly 32% are rated “Good,” 56% “Fair,” and 12% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.
Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.
Good condition
32%
56 of 175 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56%
98 of 175 rated 5-6
Poor condition
12%
21 of 175 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#72 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 175 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 32% (56)
Fair 56% (98)
Poor 12% (21)
Hamilton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,100 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 52 crossings a day against 4,211 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.
Computed over the 175 of 175 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
65.1% of Hamilton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
114 of the 175 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 32% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.
Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
One structure carries 33.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
FAS 2495 over PLATTE RIVER, built 1982, carries 370 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 21-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,100 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Hamilton County's bridges were built
175 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
51 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 9
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
42 bridges
- 1970s 8
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s 12
1980–1989
12 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
22 bridges
- 2000s 13
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 12 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Hamilton County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Hamilton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 8 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nemaha County | 179 | 44.1% | 19.6% | 36.3% | 1967 |
| Pierce County | 177 | 39% | 47.5% | 13.6% | 1968 |
| Hamilton County (this page) | 175 | 32% | 56% | 12% | 1965 |
| Johnson County | 173 | 47.4% | 27.2% | 25.4% | 1971 |
| Merrick County | 173 | 65.3% | 26% | 8.7% | 1976 |
| Burt County | 169 | 36.7% | 60.4% | 3% | 1983 |
Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Hamilton County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Hamilton County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (175 bridges here).
- Smith County, MS · 175 bridges
- Warren County, MS · 175 bridges
- San Miguel County, NM · 175 bridges
- Madison County, NY · 175 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1965 here).
- Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
- Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
- Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
- Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (21)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
1.8S .5W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Built 1951 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
2W STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 2.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
1.8S 1.3W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Built 1951 Load: 2.0 t ADT: 40
LOCAL STREET
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK
STREETER PARK WEST, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 3.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
.5N 4W STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Built 1951 Load: 4.0 t ADT: 50
U ROAD
PoorOver: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
1E .2N STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 10
V ROAD
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK
1.2N .7W HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Built 1951 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 50
4TH ROAD
PoorOver: STREAM
1.8S 3.8E GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 6.0 t ADT: 35
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: BEAVER CREEK
1.5S 1E HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Built 1951 Load: 6.0 t ADT: 35
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
.9W 4S HORDVILLE, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 40
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
4W .4S STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 30
X ROAD
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK
1.6N 1E HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 50
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
2.2S .2W MARQUETTE, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 25
COLL 7611
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK
2.6E .8N AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 14.0 t ADT: 60
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: BIG BLUE RIVER
10N US34 YORK CL, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 40
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: BEAVER CREEK
1.6E .9S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 45
FAS 2495
PoorOver: PLATTE RIVER
10NE US34 MERRICK CL, Hamilton, NE
Built 1982 Load: 16.0 t ADT: 370
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK
1W 1.4N AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Built 1963 Load: 23.0 t ADT: 40
16 RD
PoorOver: LINCOLN CREEK TRIB
5.2E 1N PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Built 1935 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 40
FAS 2420
PoorOver: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
JCT US34/N14 5N 1.1E, Hamilton, NE
Built 1987 Load: 25.0 t ADT: 65
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
4W .4N STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Built 1963 Load: 44.0 t ADT: 30
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.