Total bridges
14
Public highway bridges in Rock County
County profile · official public datasets
Rock County, NE
14 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.9% rated Good, 50% Fair, 7.1% Poor.
- 14
- Public bridges
- 42.9%
- Good condition
- 7.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Rock 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.
- 49th
- of 88 on Poor share
- 7.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 14
- 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.
Rock County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rock County ranks #49 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Rock County, Nebraska contains 14 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.9% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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
42.9%
6 of 14 rated 7-9
Fair condition
50%
7 of 14 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.1%
1 of 14 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#49 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 14 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 42.9% (6)
Fair 50% (7)
Poor 7.1% (1)
Rock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 35 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 35 crossings a day against 698 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 14 of 14 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
57.1% of Rock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
8 of the 14 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 42.9% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
ASPEN AVENUE over NIOBRARA RIVER, built 1912, 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 35 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Rock County's bridges were built
14 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
3 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 4 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.6% 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.
How Rock County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Rock County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is 14 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loup County | 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 (this page) | 14 | 42.9% | 50% | 7.1% | 1968 |
| Perkins County | 13 | 84.6% | 15.4% | 0% | 1955 |
| Wheeler County | 13 | 76.9% | 23.1% | 0% | 1998 |
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 Rock 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 Rock County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (14 bridges here).
- Seward County, KS · 14 bridges
- Barranquitas County, PR · 14 bridges
- McPherson County, SD · 14 bridges
- Yakutat City and County, AK · 15 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1968 here).
- Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
- San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
- Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
- Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (7)
COLL 7432
FairOver: ELKHORN RIVER
4S .5E OF NEWPORT, Rock, NE
Built 1935 Load: 12.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: ELKHORN RIVER
7S 2W OF NEWPORT, Rock, NE
Built 1935 Load: 14.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: ELKHORN RIVER
4.5S OF NEWPORT, Rock, NE
Built 1935 Load: 16.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: SKULL CREEK
31S 4.5W OF BASSETT, Rock, NE
Built 1969 Load: 21.0 t ADT: 35
449TH AVE
FairOver: LAUGHING WATER CREEK
10N 2.8E BASSETT, Rock, NE
Built 2002 Load: 26.0 t ADT: 45
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: CALAMUS RIVER
5W US183 LOUP CL, Rock, NE
Built 2002 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: ASH CREEK
12 N NEWPORT, Rock, NE
Built 2002 Load: 38.0 t ADT: 10
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.