County profile · official public datasets

Sherman County, NE

118 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.6% rated Good, 39% Fair, 3.4% Poor.

118
Public bridges: 57.6%
Good condition: 3.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Sherman 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 33%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.4%
Poor-condition share: 118
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.

Sherman County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sherman County ranks #29 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.4%). Sherman County, Nebraska contains 118 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.6% are rated “Good,” 39% “Fair,” and 3.4% “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

118

Public highway bridges in Sherman County

Good condition

57.6%

68 of 118 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39%

46 of 118 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.4%

4 of 118 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#29 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 118 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57.6% (68)

Fair

39% (46)

Poor

3.4% (4)

Sherman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 830 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 208 crossings a day against 556 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 118 of 118 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

60.2% of Sherman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

71 of the 118 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 57.6% 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 79.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

N58 over STREAM, built 1969, carries 660 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 830 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

1
1930s

16
1940s

1
1950s

5
1960s

38
1970s

17
1980s

8
1990s

16
2000s

7
2010s

5
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 38 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 32.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 5 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Sherman County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Sherman County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Clay County	134	66.4%	27.6%	6%	1975
Sherman County (this page)	118	57.6%	39%	3.4%	1972
Valley County	115	80.9%	19.1%	0%	1981
Franklin County	104	58.7%	38.5%	2.9%	1977
Frontier County	96	59.4%	20.8%	19.8%	1970
Polk County	94	57.4%	30.9%	11.7%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (118 bridges here).

Autauga County, AL · 118 bridges
Perry County, AR · 118 bridges
Montrose County, CO · 118 bridges
Rabun County, GA · 118 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.

All 118 Good 68 Fair 46 Poor 4

All bridges (118)

Sort:

Sherman County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Sherman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 830 vehicle crossings a day

60.2% of Sherman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 79.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Sherman 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 (118)

474 ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COUNTY RD 484TH AV

TOWNSHIP ROAD

FAS 2065

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N10

N10

N10

N58

N58

N58

N58/N92

N92

COLL 7475

FAS 2055

N58

N92

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

FAS 2065

TOWNSHIP ROAD

MIN MAINT ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

N10

N58

FAS 1770

FAS 1940

N10

COLL 7482

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY RD 472ND AV

COLL 7472

FAS 2065

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N10

N10

N10

N58

N68

N68

N92

N92

L82A N10 TO N68

L82A N10 TO N68

COUNTY HIGHWAY

TOWNSHIP ROAD

N2

N68

N2

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