Total bridges
20
Public highway bridges in Loup County
County profile · official public datasets
Loup County, NE
20 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50% rated Good, 35% Fair, 15% Poor.
- 20
- Public bridges
- 50%
- Good condition
- 15%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Loup County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 78th
- of 88 on Poor share
- 15%
- Poor-condition share
- 20
- public highway bridges
- 1977
- 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.
Loup County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Loup County ranks #78 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 15%). Loup County, Nebraska contains 20 public highway bridges. Roughly 50% are rated “Good,” 35% “Fair,” and 15% “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
50%
10 of 20 rated 7-9
Fair condition
35%
7 of 20 rated 5-6
Poor condition
15%
3 of 20 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#78 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 20 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 50% (10)
Fair 35% (7)
Poor 15% (3)
Loup County's Poor-condition bridges carry 40 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 15% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 13 crossings a day against 701 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 20 of 20 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
60% of Loup County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
12 of the 20 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 50% 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 37.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COUNTY HIGHWAY over CALAMUS RIVER, built 1970, carries 15 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 40 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Loup County's bridges were built
20 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1950s
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
7 bridges
- 1970s 1
1970–1979
1 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
3 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 7 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 35% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Nebraska average (1977).
How Loup County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Loup County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 15% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield County | 24 | 58.3% | 37.5% | 4.2% | 1978 |
| Keya Paha County | 23 | 43.5% | 43.5% | 13% | 1971 |
| Loup County (this page) | 20 | 50% | 35% | 15% | 1977 |
| Blaine County | 19 | 57.9% | 31.6% | 10.5% | 1990 |
| Thomas County | 19 | 57.9% | 42.1% | 0% | 1989 |
| Rock County | 14 | 42.9% | 50% | 7.1% | 1968 |
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 Loup 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 Loup County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (20 bridges here).
- Haines County, AK · 20 bridges
- Custer County, CO · 20 bridges
- Quitman County, GA · 20 bridges
- Issaquena County, MS · 20 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1977 here).
- San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
- King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
- Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
- Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (7)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: CALAMUS RIVER
7.5W 19.7N OF TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 1965 Load: 3.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
7W 4N OF TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 1965 Load: 3.0 t ADT: 55
US183
FairOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
0N TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 1963 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 945
COLL 7429
FairOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
.5S 4E OF TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 1999 Load: 31.0 t ADT: 65
N91
FairOver: SIOUX CREEK
8E TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 1994 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 1,280
846 RD
FairOver: CALAMUS RIVER
5W US183 ROCK CL, Loup, NE
Built 2019 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 35
COLL 7416
FairOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
10.5W 7N TAYLOR, Loup, NE
Built 2005 Load: 64.0 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.