County profile · official public datasets

Thayer County, NE

220 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55% rated Good, 40% Fair, 5% Poor.

220
Public bridges: 55%
Good condition: 5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Thayer 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 44%
lowest Poor share in state: 5%
Poor-condition share: 220
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.

Thayer County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Thayer County ranks #39 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Thayer County, Nebraska contains 220 public highway bridges. Roughly 55% are rated “Good,” 40% “Fair,” and 5% “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

220

Public highway bridges in Thayer County

Good condition

55%

121 of 220 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40%

88 of 220 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11 of 220 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 220 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

55% (121)

Fair

40% (88)

Poor

5% (11)

Thayer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,085 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 190 crossings a day against 667 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 220 of 220 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55% of Thayer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

121 of the 220 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 55% 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 62.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US136 over DRY CREEK, built 1940, carries 1,310 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,085 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

3
1930s

67
1940s

12
1950s

9
1960s

20
1970s

24
1980s

23
1990s

32
2000s

9
2010s

15
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 67 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.5% 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 Thayer County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Thayer County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Thayer County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Stanton County	223	48.4%	42.2%	9.4%	1983
Thayer County (this page)	220	55%	40%	5%	1968
Fillmore County	218	69.7%	21.6%	8.7%	1978
Adams County	211	60.2%	33.6%	6.2%	1978
Butler County	211	20.4%	76.8%	2.8%	1983
York County	205	57.6%	39.5%	2.9%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (220 bridges here).

Bibb County, GA · 220 bridges
Decatur County, IN · 220 bridges
Dubois County, IN · 220 bridges
Taylor County, IA · 220 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.

All 220 Good 121 Fair 88 Poor 11

All bridges (220)

Sort:

Thayer County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Thayer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,085 vehicle crossings a day

55% of Thayer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 62.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Thayer 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 (220)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7661

FAS 2705

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N4

N8

N8

US81

SB US81

US136

US136

US136

COUNTY HIGHWAY

FAS 2687

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7671

COUNTY HIGHWAY

4TH STREET

SB US81

COLL 7663

COLL 7661

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7599

N4

COLL 7599

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ROAD U

N8

N8

US136

COLL 7665

N4

S85D BELVIDERE

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

RD 7000

RD V

ROAD 6600

RD N

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7578

COLL 7578

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7663

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N8

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