Total bridges
197
Public highway bridges in Lincoln County
County profile · official public datasets
Lincoln County, NE
197 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 65% rated Good, 28.4% Fair, 6.6% Poor.
- 197
- Public bridges
- 65%
- Good condition
- 6.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lincoln County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 47th
- of 88 on Poor share
- 6.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 197
- public highway bridges
- 1976
- 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.
Lincoln County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lincoln County ranks #47 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.6%). Lincoln County, Nebraska contains 197 public highway bridges. Roughly 65% are rated “Good,” 28.4% “Fair,” and 6.6% “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
65%
128 of 197 rated 7-9
Fair condition
28.4%
56 of 197 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.6%
13 of 197 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 197 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 65% (128)
Fair 28.4% (56)
Poor 6.6% (13)
Lincoln County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,330 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 256 crossings a day against 2,306 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 197 of 197 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
46.7% of Lincoln County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
92 of the 197 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 65% 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 30% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
TECH COLLEGE ROAD over NPPD POWER CANAL, built 1964, carries 1,000 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 13-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 3,330 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lincoln County's bridges were built
197 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
41 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 5
1950–1959
5 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
39 bridges
- 1970s 8
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s 14
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
30 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
40 bridges
- 2010s 14
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 41 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 (1976) matches the Nebraska average (1977).
How Lincoln County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Lincoln County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams County | 211 | 60.2% | 33.6% | 6.2% | 1978 |
| York County | 205 | 57.6% | 39.5% | 2.9% | 1974 |
| Lincoln County (this page) | 197 | 65% | 28.4% | 6.6% | 1976 |
| Sarpy County | 192 | 38.5% | 52.1% | 9.4% | 1980 |
| Pawnee County | 191 | 37.7% | 27.7% | 34.6% | 1967 |
| Webster County | 191 | 63.9% | 26.7% | 9.4% | 1978 |
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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (197 bridges here).
- Crawford County, IL · 197 bridges
- Fountain County, IN · 197 bridges
- Warrick County, IN · 197 bridges
- Allamakee County, IA · 197 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1976 here).
- Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
- Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
- Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (13)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 6.6
4W 1.5S OF MAXWELL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 45
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 9.0
10.7W 1.2N OF BRADY, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 50
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 32.8
4.5E 7.5S OF BRADY, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 5.9
4.5W 1.2S OF MAXWELL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 6.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 7.2
3.5W 2S OF MAXWELL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 7.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL MP 26.0
.5E 3.5S OF BRADY, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 8.0 t ADT: 30
SCOTT RD
PoorOver: TRI-COUNTY CANAL
1.5E 4.5S OF BRADY, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 20
FAS 1475
PoorOver: NORTH PLATTE RIVER
JCT US30/N25 .6E 3.7N, Lincoln, NE
Built 1915 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 180
SOUTH COUNTY LINE
PoorOver: DRY CREEK
13E US83 FRONTIER CL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1935 Load: 13.0 t ADT: 10
S56A MAXWELL SPUR
PoorOver: PLATTE RIVER S CHAN
3S MAXWELL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1931 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 850
FAS 1480
PoorOver: THIRTY MILE CANAL
5.2S 4E OF BRADY, Lincoln, NE
Built 1927 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 125
S56A MAXWELL SPUR
PoorOver: N CH PLATTE RIVER
1S MAXWELL, Lincoln, NE
Built 1931 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 955
TECH COLLEGE ROAD
PoorOver: NPPD POWER CANAL
SE CL NORTH PLATTE, Lincoln, NE
Built 1964 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 1,000
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.