Total bridges
250
Public highway bridges in Scotts Bluff County
County profile · official public datasets
Scotts Bluff County, NE
250 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 64% rated Good, 30.8% Fair, 5.2% Poor.
- 250
- Public bridges
- 64%
- Good condition
- 5.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Scotts Bluff County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 47%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 5.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 250
- public highway bridges
- 1972
- 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.
Scotts Bluff County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Scotts Bluff County ranks #41 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.2%). Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska contains 250 public highway bridges. Roughly 64% are rated “Good,” 30.8% “Fair,” and 5.2% “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
64%
160 of 250 rated 7-9
Fair condition
30.8%
77 of 250 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5.2%
13 of 250 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#41 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 250 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 64% (160)
Fair 30.8% (77)
Poor 5.2% (13)
Scotts Bluff County's Poor-condition bridges carry 625 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 48 crossings a day against 1,245 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 250 of 250 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
46.4% of Scotts Bluff County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
116 of the 250 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 64% 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 24% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COOK OIL over TRI-STATE CANAL, built 1975, carries 150 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 625 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Scotts Bluff County's bridges were built
250 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 6
1910–1919
6 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
44 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
37 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
35 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
53 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
33 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 5 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Scotts Bluff County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Scotts Bluff County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richardson County | 258 | 41.9% | 44.6% | 13.6% | 1966 |
| Nuckolls County | 255 | 33.3% | 57.6% | 9% | 1979 |
| Colfax County | 252 | 62.7% | 35.3% | 2% | 1990 |
| Wayne County | 251 | 55% | 35.5% | 9.6% | 1978 |
| Scotts Bluff County (this page) | 250 | 64% | 30.8% | 5.2% | 1972 |
| Seward County | 244 | 66.4% | 25.8% | 7.8% | 1980 |
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 Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (250 bridges here).
- Escambia County, FL · 250 bridges
- Morrow County, OH · 250 bridges
- Humphreys County, TN · 250 bridges
- Hopkins County, TX · 250 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1972 here).
- Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
- Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
- Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
- York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 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 ROAD 5
PoorOver: HORSE CREEK
2.2E 1.7N OF LYMAN, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 35
COUNTY ROAD M
PoorOver: NINEMILE CREEK
2E 2N OF MINATARE, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1965 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 45
COUNTY ROAD L
PoorOver: OWL CREEK
7.2S OF MORRILL, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY ROAD E
PoorOver: DRY SPOTTED TAIL CREEK
.5W OF MITCHELL, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY ROAD 13
PoorOver: MITCHELL-GERING CANAL
3S 1W OF MITCHELL, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 7.0 t ADT: 35
COUNTY ROAD U
PoorOver: STREAM
1.5S .5W OF MELBETA, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1983 Load: 7.0 t ADT: 20
COUNTY ROAD 19
PoorOver: ENTERPRISE CANAL
4.2E 1.7S OF MITCHELL, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 60
COUNTY ROAD 2
PoorOver: DRY CREEK DRAIN
2.2S OF LYMAN, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 35
COUNTY ROAD G
PoorOver: ENTERPRISE CANAL
2N 1.7W OF SCOTTSBLUFF, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 100
COUNTY ROAD 32
PoorOver: LOW LINE CANAL
3E OF LAKE MINATARE, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 15
COUNTY ROAD 31
PoorOver: LOW LINE CANAL
1S OF LAKE MINATARE, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1935 Load: 16.0 t ADT: 35
ROAD 22
PoorOver: GERING VALLEY DRAIN
2S OF GERING, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1960 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 40
COOK OIL
PoorOver: TRI-STATE CANAL
1.7SE OF MITCHELL, Scotts Bluff, NE
Built 1975 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 150
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.