County profile · official public datasets

Pierce County, NE

177 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39% rated Good, 47.5% Fair, 13.6% Poor.

177
Public bridges
39%
Good condition
13.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pierce 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.

74th
of 88 on Poor share
13.6%
Poor-condition share
177
public highway bridges
1968
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.

Pierce County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pierce County ranks #74 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 13.6%). Pierce County, Nebraska contains 177 public highway bridges. Roughly 39% are rated “Good,” 47.5% “Fair,” and 13.6% “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.

Total bridges

177

Public highway bridges in Pierce County

Good condition

39%

69 of 177 rated 7-9

Fair condition

47.5%

84 of 177 rated 5-6

Poor condition

13.6%

24 of 177 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#74 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 177 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
39% (69)
Fair
47.5% (84)
Poor
13.6% (24)

Pierce County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,900 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 13.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 329 crossings a day against 1,133 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 177 of 177 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

50.8% of Pierce County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 177 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 39% 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 53.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US81 over YANKTON SLOUGH TRIB, built 1938, carries 4,245 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 24-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 7,900 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Pierce County's bridges were built

177 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 59 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1968, 9 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Pierce County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 13.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pierce County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Nemaha County 179 36.3%
Pierce County (this page) 177 13.6%
Hamilton County 175 12%
Johnson County 173 25.4%
Merrick County 173 8.7%
Burt County 169 3%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (177 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1968 here).

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

All 177 Good 69 Fair 84 Poor 24

Fair-condition bridges (84)

FAS 2945

Fair

Over: DRY CREEK

JCT N13/N121 3N 3.3W, Pierce, NE

Built 1990 Load: 23.0 t ADT: 45

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

1N 4E OF MCLEAN, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 23.0 t ADT: 40

867TH RD

Fair

Over: MIDDLE LOGAN CREEK TRIB

5E .5N OF MCCLEAN, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 50

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: E BR N FK ELKHORN RIVER

2.7E 1N OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 50

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

8S 1W OF PLAINVIEW, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 5

FAS 2945

Fair

Over: BRESLAU CREEK

WJCT US20/N121 2.8W .6S, Pierce, NE

Built 1977 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 45

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

4.5N 3.7W OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 25.0 t ADT: 25

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

2S .5W OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1979 Load: 25.0 t ADT: 40

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

3N OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1990 Load: 25.0 t ADT: 50

COUNTY HIGHWAY 538

Fair

Over: STREAM

5N 1E OF PLAINVIEW, Pierce, NE

Built 1979 Load: 26.0 t ADT: 30

FAS 2935

Fair

Over: STREAM

JCT US20/N13 .3E 3.9S, Pierce, NE

Built 1969 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 210

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: YANKTON SLOUGH

6N 3E OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1991 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 25

N13

Fair

Over: DRY CREEK

8NW PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1958 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 1,500

N121

Fair

Over: DRY CREEK

7S OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1969 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 1,080

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

2N 0.3E OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 28.0 t ADT: 25

US20/N121

Fair

Over: E BR N FK ELKHORN RIVER

3E OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1957 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 2,345

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

.7W 2N OF HADAR, Pierce, NE

Built 1989 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 40

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

.5W 5N OF BRESLAU, Pierce, NE

Built 1935 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 60

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

.5W 2N OF HADAR, Pierce, NE

Built 1986 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 25

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

3S 1.3W OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1995 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 10

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: DRY CREEK

2N 0.8W OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 2015 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 15

N98

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

0E PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1960 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 1,480

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: WILLOW CREEK

2S 5W OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1985 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 15

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: BRESLAU CREEK

1.7SW OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1998 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 35

US81

Fair

Over: YANKTON SLOUGH

JCT US81/US20, Pierce, NE

Built 1990 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 3,740

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

2N 3E OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 1993 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 40

542 AVE

Fair

Over: WILLOW CREEK

.5S 7W OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 2016 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 20

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: YANKTON SLOUGH

5S .5E OF MCLEAN, Pierce, NE

Built 2001 Load: 44.0 t ADT: 30

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

1.5S 1W OF OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 2004 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 25

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: STREAM

4E .4N OF PIERCE, Pierce, NE

Built 2002 Load: 46.0 t ADT: 50

US20

Fair

Over: W BR N FK ELKHORN RIVER

2W OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1992 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 2,570

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: E BR N FK ELKHORN RIVER

2W 1.5N OF MCLEAN, Pierce, NE

Built 2004 Load: 48.0 t ADT: 35

US20

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

1W OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1992 Load: 49.0 t ADT: 2,570

US20/N121

Fair

Over: N FK ELKHORN RIVER

WCL OSMOND, Pierce, NE

Built 1992 Load: 49.0 t ADT: 2,345

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

Related

Browse all → | Rankings →
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.