Total bridges
63
Public highway bridges in Sheridan County
County profile · official public datasets
Sheridan County, NE
63 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 85.7% rated Good, 14.3% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 63
- Public bridges
- 85.7%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sheridan County pairs a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 5%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 63
- public highway bridges
- 1965
- 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.
Sheridan County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sheridan County ranks #4 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Sheridan County, Nebraska contains 63 public highway bridges. Roughly 85.7% are rated “Good,” 14.3% “Fair,” and 0% “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
85.7%
54 of 63 rated 7-9
Fair condition
14.3%
9 of 63 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 63 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#4 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 63 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 85.7% (54)
Fair 14.3% (9)
Poor 0% (0)
57.1% of Sheridan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
36 of the 63 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 85.7% 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.
When Sheridan County's bridges were built
63 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
14 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
8 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
6 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 3
1990–1999
3 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
10 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 12 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Sheridan County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Sheridan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 10 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearney County | 71 | 63.4% | 35.2% | 1.4% | 1978 |
| Boyd County | 64 | 81.3% | 14.1% | 4.7% | 1987 |
| Sheridan County (this page) | 63 | 85.7% | 14.3% | 0% | 1965 |
| Gosper County | 62 | 67.7% | 22.6% | 9.7% | 1977 |
| Cherry County | 57 | 42.1% | 38.6% | 19.3% | 1959 |
| Brown County | 56 | 42.9% | 50% | 7.1% | 1972 |
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 Sheridan 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 Sheridan County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (63 bridges here).
- Highlands County, FL · 63 bridges
- Chattahoochee County, GA · 63 bridges
- Red River County, LA · 63 bridges
- Lincoln County, ME · 63 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1965 here).
- Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
- Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
- Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
- Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (9)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: NIOBRARA RIVER
#20/#250 6.6S 7.5E, Sheridan, NE
Built 1888 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: NIOBRARA RIVER
#20/S87 12S 6.9E, Sheridan, NE
Built 1981 Load: 7.0 t ADT: 5
470th Lane
FairOver: Mirage Flats Canal
11.7 mi SSE of HaySprings, Sheridan, NE
Built 1945 Load: 9.7 t ADT: 5
IRR/COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: WHITE CLAY CREEK
.5S OF WHITECLAY, Sheridan, NE
Built 1935 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 15
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: MIRAGE FLATS CANAL
#20/S87 11.5S 2W, Sheridan, NE
Built 1935 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 5
N27
FairOver: STREAM
IN GORDON, Sheridan, NE
Built 1949 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 1,035
US20/N87
FairOver: STREAM
IN HAY SPRINGS, Sheridan, NE
Built 1937 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 2,040
US20/N87
FairOver: STREAM
1E HAY SPRINGS, Sheridan, NE
Built 1937 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 2,535
US20
FairOver: STREAM
1E GORDON, Sheridan, NE
Built 1937 Load: 26.0 t ADT: 1,470
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.