Total bridges
149
Public highway bridges in Washington County
County profile · official public datasets
Washington County, NE
149 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 76.5% rated Good, 20.8% Fair, 2.7% Poor.
- 149
- Public bridges
- 76.5%
- Good condition
- 2.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Washington County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 23%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 149
- public highway bridges
- 1989
- 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.
Washington County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Washington County ranks #20 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.7%). Washington County, Nebraska contains 149 public highway bridges. Roughly 76.5% are rated “Good,” 20.8% “Fair,” and 2.7% “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
76.5%
114 of 149 rated 7-9
Fair condition
20.8%
31 of 149 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.7%
4 of 149 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#20 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 149 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 76.5% (114)
Fair 20.8% (31)
Poor 2.7% (4)
Washington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,290 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 323 crossings a day against 772 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 149 of 149 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
24.8% of Washington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
37 of the 149 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 76.5% 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 94.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
N91 over STREAM, built 1964, carries 1,220 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 1,290 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Washington County's bridges were built
149 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 5
1950–1959
5 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
14 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
12 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
22 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
29 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
22 bridges
- 2020s 9
2020–2029
9 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 12 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Washington County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Washington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.7% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 13 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howard County | 161 | 29.2% | 64.6% | 6.2% | 1977 |
| Cheyenne County | 159 | 82.4% | 16.4% | 1.3% | 1973 |
| Thurston County | 152 | 48.7% | 30.9% | 20.4% | 1980 |
| Washington County (this page) | 149 | 76.5% | 20.8% | 2.7% | 1989 |
| Nance County | 148 | 54.1% | 40.5% | 5.4% | 1973 |
| Dixon County | 146 | 34.2% | 56.2% | 9.6% | 1978 |
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 Washington 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 Washington County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (149 bridges here).
- Tallapoosa County, AL · 149 bridges
- Drew County, AR · 149 bridges
- Madison County, AR · 149 bridges
- Walker County, GA · 149 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1989 here).
- Harris County, TX · avg 1989 · 4,029 bridges
- Mecklenburg County, NC · avg 1989 · 746 bridges
- Brazos County, TX · avg 1989 · 370 bridges
- Dubuque County, IA · avg 1989 · 346 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (4)
COUNTY ROAD P19
PoorOver: NEW YORK CREEK
3.5S 3.5W HERMAN, Washington, NE
Built 1935 Load: 2.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY ROAD P29
PoorOver: STREAM
2E .4N HERMAN, Washington, NE
Built 1935 Load: 6.0 t ADT: 15
N91
PoorOver: STREAM
8E NICKERSON, Washington, NE
Built 1964 Load: 16.0 t ADT: 1,220
COUNTY ROAD P30
PoorOver: MOORES CREEK
1N FORT CALHOUN, Washington, NE
Built 1935 Load: 21.0 t ADT: 50
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.