County profile · official public datasets

Hitchcock County, NE

77 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 77.9% rated Good, 18.2% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

77
Public bridges
77.9%
Good condition
3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Hitchcock County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 39%
lowest Poor share in state
3.9%
Poor-condition share
77
public highway bridges
1969
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.

Hitchcock County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hitchcock County ranks #34 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Hitchcock County, Nebraska contains 77 public highway bridges. Roughly 77.9% are rated “Good,” 18.2% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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.

Total bridges

77

Public highway bridges in Hitchcock County

Good condition

77.9%

60 of 77 rated 7-9

Fair condition

18.2%

14 of 77 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

3 of 77 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#34 of 88

Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 77 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
77.9% (60)
Fair
18.2% (14)
Poor
3.9% (3)

Hitchcock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 70 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 23 crossings a day against 648 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 77 of 77 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.1% of Hitchcock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

44 of the 77 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 77.9% 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 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COLL 7262 over STREAM, built 1935, carries 35 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 70 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Hitchcock County's bridges were built

77 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 8 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

How Hitchcock County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Hitchcock County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 7 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hitchcock County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Phelps County 80 7.5%
Red Willow County 80 5%
Hitchcock County (this page) 77 3.9%
Dakota County 73 9.6%
Deuel County 73 1.4%
Kearney County 71 1.4%

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 Hitchcock 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 Hitchcock County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (77 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1969 here).

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 77 Good 60 Fair 14 Poor 3

All bridges (77)

G STREET

Good

Over: BUSH CREEK

TRENTON G @ WEST 6TH, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1985 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 150

N17

Good

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

IN CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1959 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 385

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

4.5W 2.5N OF CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1991 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 25

US6/US34

Good

Over: BLACKWOOD CREEK

2E CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1967 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 4,335

N17

Good

Over: DRIFTWOOD CREEK

11S CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1981 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 200

N17

Good

Over: REPUBLICAN RIVER

1S CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1979 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 315

N25

Good

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

9N TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1957 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 370

US34

Good

Over: BUSH CREEK

1W TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 1,680

COLL 7264

Good

Over: BOBTAIL CREEK

1E US6 HAYES CL, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1999 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 100

US34

Good

Over: ELM CREEK

3W TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 1,680

ROAD 359

Good

Over: BOBTAIL CREEK

JCT US6/N25A 2.3S, Hitchcock, NE

Built 2020 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 120

US34

Good

Over: CAMP CREEK

3E STRATTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 1,440

US34

Good

Over: MASSACRE CANYON

3E TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 2,125

COLL 7264

Good

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

2E US6 HAYES CL, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1998 Load: 41.0 t ADT: 100

US6

Good

Over: BOBTAIL CREEK

1E PALISADE, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1990 Load: 41.0 t ADT: 1,405

US34

Good

Over: DRY CANYON

5E STRATTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 41.0 t ADT: 1,440

US6

Good

Over: BOEVAU CANYON

6E PALISADE, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1990 Load: 42.0 t ADT: 1,405

ROAD 369

Good

Over: N FK DRIFTWOOD CREEK

8.5S 4E OF TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 2018 Load: 43.0 t ADT: 40

ROAD 636

Good

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

1.2S 3.5E OF PALISADE, Hitchcock, NE

Built 2018 Load: 43.0 t ADT: 70

N25

Good

Over: REPUBLICAN RIVER

1S TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1992 Load: 46.0 t ADT: 615

US34

Good

Over: MACKLIN CANYON

5W TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1950 Load: 46.0 t ADT: 1,440

ROAD 708

Good

Over: DRIFTWOOD CREEK

9S OF CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 2003 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 45

DRIFTWOOD DRIVE

Good

Over: DRIFTWOOD CREEK

6.5S 6E OF TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 2003 Load: 48.0 t ADT: 10

N25

Good

Over: BUSH CREEK

1S TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1992 Load: 51.0 t ADT: 615

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Poor

Over: DRIFTWOOD CREEK

7.3S 5E OF TRENTON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 20

ELM CREEK DRIVE

Poor

Over: ELM CREEK

10.5S 1.2E OF CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 15

COLL 7262

Poor

Over: STREAM

7S OF CULBERTSON, Hitchcock, NE

Built 1935 Load: 8.0 t ADT: 35

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.