Total bridges
463
Public highway bridges in Darke County
County profile · official public datasets
Darke County, OH
463 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 82.9% rated Good, 16.6% Fair, 0.4% Poor.
- 463
- Public bridges
- 82.9%
- Good condition
- 0.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Darke County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 6%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 463
- public highway bridges
- 1985
- 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.
Darke County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Darke County ranks #5 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.4%). Darke County, Ohio contains 463 public highway bridges. Roughly 82.9% are rated “Good,” 16.6% “Fair,” and 0.4% “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.
Good condition
82.9%
384 of 463 rated 7-9
Fair condition
16.6%
77 of 463 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.4%
2 of 463 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#5 of 88
Among Ohio counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 463 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 82.9% (384)
Fair 16.6% (77)
Poor 0.4% (2)
Darke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,148 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 574 crossings a day against 970 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 462 of 463 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
22.2% of Darke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
103 of the 463 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 82.9% 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.
One structure carries 69.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RHYNARD-FINK over NORTH FORK OF STILLWATER, built 1977, carries 797 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,148 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Darke County's bridges were built
463 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 10
1940–1949
10 bridges
- 1950s 17
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
52 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
54 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
113 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
109 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
73 bridges
- 2010s 21
2010–2019
21 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 113 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1985, 8 years newer than the Ohio average of 1977.
How Darke County compares with Ohio's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Ohio counties nearest Darke County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 5 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Ohio counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood County | 508 | 64.2% | 31.5% | 4.3% | 1980 |
| Darke County (this page) | 463 | 82.9% | 16.6% | 0.4% | 1985 |
| Licking County | 439 | 57.2% | 35.1% | 7.7% | 1988 |
| Lucas County | 418 | 74.4% | 23.7% | 1.9% | 1984 |
| Stark County | 415 | 51.8% | 42.7% | 5.5% | 1973 |
| Wayne County | 391 | 59.3% | 33.8% | 6.9% | 1976 |
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 Darke 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 Darke County, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside OH (463 bridges here).
- Calcasieu County, LA · 463 bridges
- Anderson County, SC · 463 bridges
- Jefferson County, CO · 464 bridges
- Hamilton County, TN · 464 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1985 here).
- Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
- Lancaster County, NE · avg 1985 · 661 bridges
- Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
- Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.