County profile · official public datasets

Phelps County, NE

80 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.5% rated Good, 40% Fair, 7.5% Poor.

80
Public bridges: 52.5%
Good condition: 7.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Phelps County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

50th
of 88 on Poor share: 7.5%
Poor-condition share: 80
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Phelps County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Phelps County ranks #50 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.5%). Phelps County, Nebraska contains 80 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.5% are rated “Good,” 40% “Fair,” and 7.5% “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

Public highway bridges in Phelps County

Good condition

52.5%

42 of 80 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40%

32 of 80 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.5%

6 of 80 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#50 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 80 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

52.5% (42)

Fair

40% (32)

Poor

7.5% (6)

Phelps County's Poor-condition bridges carry 185 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 31 crossings a day against 583 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 80 of 80 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.8% of Phelps County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

31 of the 80 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 52.5% 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 51.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COLL 7383 over IRRIGATION CANAL, built 1960, carries 95 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 185 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

9
1940s

4
1950s

2
1960s

14
1970s

11
1980s

8
1990s

9
2000s

14
2010s

4
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Nebraska average (1977).

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Phelps County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 8 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Phelps County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Greeley County	84	28.6%	54.8%	16.7%	1969
Red Willow County	80	60%	35%	5%	1970
Phelps County (this page)	80	52.5%	40%	7.5%	1980
Hitchcock County	77	77.9%	18.2%	3.9%	1969
Dakota County	73	50.7%	39.7%	9.6%	1975
Deuel County	73	80.8%	17.8%	1.4%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (80 bridges here).

Moffat County, CO · 80 bridges
Burke County, GA · 80 bridges
Gooding County, ID · 80 bridges
Madison County, ID · 80 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 80 Good 42 Fair 32 Poor 6

All bridges (80)

Sort:

Phelps County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Phelps County's Poor-condition bridges carry 185 vehicle crossings a day

38.8% of Phelps County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 51.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

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

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (80)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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FAS 1865

N23

N23

N23

US183

SPALDING DRIVE

P ROAD

FAS 1855

COUNTY HIGHWAY

J RD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US183

US183

COUNTY HIGHWAY

U ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

730 ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7383

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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