Total bridges
36
Public highway bridges in Sioux County
County profile · official public datasets
Sioux County, NE
36 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.3% rated Good, 38.9% Fair, 2.8% Poor.
- 36
- Public bridges
- 58.3%
- Good condition
- 2.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sioux County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 24%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 36
- 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.
Sioux County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sioux County ranks #21 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Sioux County, Nebraska contains 36 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.3% are rated “Good,” 38.9% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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
58.3%
21 of 36 rated 7-9
Fair condition
38.9%
14 of 36 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.8%
1 of 36 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#21 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 36 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 58.3% (21)
Fair 38.9% (14)
Poor 2.8% (1)
Sioux County's Poor-condition bridges carry 15 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 15 crossings a day against 167 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 36 of 36 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
44.4% of Sioux County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
16 of the 36 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 58.3% 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
COUNTY HIGHWAY over HAT CREEK, built 1935, carries 15 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 15 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Sioux County's bridges were built
36 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
10 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
7 bridges
- 1990s 3
1990–1999
3 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 5 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Sioux County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Sioux County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hayes County | 41 | 56.1% | 29.3% | 14.6% | 1977 |
| Banner County | 36 | 77.8% | 22.2% | 0% | 1972 |
| Sioux County (this page) | 36 | 58.3% | 38.9% | 2.8% | 1972 |
| Chase County | 33 | 87.9% | 9.1% | 3% | 1988 |
| Box Butte County | 30 | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0% | 1967 |
| Garden County | 29 | 79.3% | 20.7% | 0% | 1964 |
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 Sioux 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 Sioux County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (36 bridges here).
- Hansford County, TX · 36 bridges
- Zapata County, TX · 36 bridges
- Wahkiakum County, WA · 36 bridges
- Sitka City and County, AK · 37 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.
Fair-condition bridges (14)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: SAND CREEK
17E 7N OF HARRISON, Sioux, NE
Built 1970 Load: 7.0 t ADT: 15
MONTROSE ROAD
FairOver: HAT CREEK
7E 16N OF HARRISON, Sioux, NE
Built 2018 Load: 8.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: HAT CREEK
5.5E 5.5N OF HARRISON, Sioux, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 20
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: DEAD MANS CREEK
1S FORT ROBINSON, Sioux, NE
Built 1970 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 30
COLL 7139
FairOver: SOWBELLY CREEK
5.5N 4E OF HARRISON, Sioux, NE
Built 1975 Load: 14.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: WEST HAT CREEK
4.5E 3N OF HARRISON, Sioux, NE
Built 1975 Load: 14.0 t ADT: 10
COLL 7139
FairOver: WHITEHEAD CREEK
JCT N2/SD BORDER 2W 3.7S, Sioux, NE
Built 1954 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: INTERSTATE CANAL
14E 4N OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1908 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 10
COLL 7133
FairOver: INTERSTATE CANAL
9N OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1971 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 95
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: INTERSTATE CANAL
4N 5E OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1978 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 15
COLL 7137
FairOver: INTERSTATE CANAL
2.7N 7E OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1972 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 145
SERVICE ROAD
FairOver: NIOBRARA RIVER
Entrance road toward visi, Sioux, NE
Built 1985 Load: 25.4 t ADT: 4
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: INTERSTATE CANAL
3E 6N OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1982 Load: 31.0 t ADT: 20
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: PID CANAL
8N 2E OF HENRY, Sioux, NE
Built 1935 Load: 44.0 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.