Total bridges
13
Public highway bridges in Wheeler County
County profile · official public datasets
Wheeler County, NE
13 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 76.9% rated Good, 23.1% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 13
- Public bridges
- 76.9%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Wheeler 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 13%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 13
- public highway bridges
- 1998
- 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.
Wheeler County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wheeler County ranks #11 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Wheeler County, Nebraska contains 13 public highway bridges. Roughly 76.9% are rated “Good,” 23.1% “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
76.9%
10 of 13 rated 7-9
Fair condition
23.1%
3 of 13 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 13 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#11 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 13 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 76.9% (10)
Fair 23.1% (3)
Poor 0% (0)
15.4% of Wheeler County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
2 of the 13 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 76.9% 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 Wheeler County's bridges were built
13 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 4 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1998, 21 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Wheeler County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Wheeler County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1998 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 22 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loup County | 20 | 50% | 35% | 15% | 1977 |
| Blaine County | 19 | 57.9% | 31.6% | 10.5% | 1990 |
| Thomas County | 19 | 57.9% | 42.1% | 0% | 1989 |
| Rock County | 14 | 42.9% | 50% | 7.1% | 1968 |
| Perkins County | 13 | 84.6% | 15.4% | 0% | 1955 |
| Wheeler County (this page) | 13 | 76.9% | 23.1% | 0% | 1998 |
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 Wheeler 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 Wheeler County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (13 bridges here).
- Bethel County, AK · 13 bridges
- San Juan County, CO · 13 bridges
- Harding County, NM · 13 bridges
- Divide County, ND · 13 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1998 here).
- Collin County, TX · avg 1998 · 1,127 bridges
- Orange County, FL · avg 1998 · 885 bridges
- Fort Bend County, TX · avg 1998 · 795 bridges
- Montgomery County, TX · avg 1998 · 710 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (13)
COLL 7489
FairOver: BEAVER CREEK
7E 4N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 1988 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: CEDAR RIVER
1.7SE OF ERICSON, Wheeler, NE
Built 2010 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 10
N70/N91
FairOver: CEDAR RIVER
1W ERICSON, Wheeler, NE
Built 1969 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 1,010
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
11.2E 2.7N OF BARTLET, Wheeler, NE
Built 1985 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 40
COLL 7489
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
2E 5.5N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 2002 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
4E 4.5N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 2004 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 15
N70
GoodOver: STREAM
12W WHEELER/ANTELOPE CL, Wheeler, NE
Built 1989 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 580
N70
GoodOver: STREAM
11W WHEELER/ANTELOPE CL, Wheeler, NE
Built 1989 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 580
COLL 7489
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
6.5E 4N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 2017 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 25
506TH RD
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
9E 5N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 2016 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 25
ERICSON SCOTIA AVE
GoodOver: CEDAR RIVER
JCT US281/N70 .9S 6.5W, Wheeler, NE
Built 2020 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 95
US281/N70
GoodOver: BEAVER CREEK
7N BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 1958 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 1,310
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: CLEARWATER CREEK
5E 12N OF BARTLETT, Wheeler, NE
Built 2022 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 15
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.