County profile · official public datasets

Hardin County, OH

276 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 64.1% rated Good, 28.6% Fair, 7.2% Poor.

276
Public bridges: 64.1%
Good condition: 7.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Hardin County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

67th
of 88 on Poor share: 7.2%
Poor-condition share: 276
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Hardin County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hardin County ranks #67 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.2%). Hardin County, Ohio contains 276 public highway bridges. Roughly 64.1% are rated “Good,” 28.6% “Fair,” and 7.2% “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

276

Public highway bridges in Hardin County

Good condition

64.1%

177 of 276 rated 7-9

Fair condition

28.6%

79 of 276 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.2%

20 of 276 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#67 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 276 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

64.1% (177)

Fair

28.6% (79)

Poor

7.2% (20)

Hardin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,215 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 361 crossings a day against 659 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 276 of 276 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40.9% of Hardin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

113 of the 276 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 64.1% 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 20.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

LEIGHTON STREET over SCIOTO RIVER, built 1993, carries 1,463 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 7,215 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

4
1910s

8
1920s

8
1930s

11
1940s

9
1950s

17
1960s

32
1970s

41
1980s

31
1990s

46
2000s

24
2010s

26
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 46 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Ohio average (1977).

How Hardin County compares with Ohio's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Ohio counties nearest Hardin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.2% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hardin County and the 5 Ohio counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Ashland County	283	65%	32.5%	2.5%	1980
Logan County	281	78.3%	20.6%	1.1%	1979
Shelby County	277	74%	23.5%	2.5%	1989
Hardin County (this page)	276	64.1%	28.6%	7.2%	1979
Seneca County	275	72.7%	25.8%	1.5%	1983
Knox County	274	54.4%	40.1%	5.5%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OH (276 bridges here).

Lyon County, IA · 276 bridges
Navajo County, AZ · 277 bridges
Delaware County, IN · 277 bridges
Porter County, IN · 277 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 276 Good 177 Fair 79 Poor 20

Fair-condition bridges (79)

Sort:

Hardin County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hardin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,215 vehicle crossings a day

40.9% of Hardin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 20.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hardin County compares with Ohio's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (79)

TOWNSHIP ROAD 135

TOWNSHIP ROAD 180

TOWNSHIP ROAD 200

COUNTY ROAD 130

COUNTY ROAD 130

SR 273

SR 273

TOWNSHIP ROAD 245

COUNTY ROAD 95

TOWNSHIP ROAD 41

TOWNSHIP ROAD 146

COUNTY ROAD 219

SR 81

SR 273

TOWNSHIP ROAD 85

COUNTY ROAD 80

TOWNSHIP 183

COUNTY ROAD 215

SR 117 & 235 MAIN

TOWNSHIP ROAD 65

TOWNSHIP ROAD 133

USR 68

SR 81

TOWNSHIP ROAD 120

COUNTY ROAD 75

COUNTY ROAD 135

TOWNSHIP ROAD 165

COUNTY ROAD 84

TOWNSHIP ROAD 90

COUNTY ROAD 159

COUNTY ROAD 205

TOWNSHIP ROAD 180

TOWNSHIP ROAD 195

COUNTY ROAD 200

COUNTY ROAD 200

COUNTY ROAD 150

TOWNSHIP ROAD 179

COUNTY ROAD 60

TOWNSHIP ROAD 100

TOWNSHIP ROAD 205

TOWNSHIP ROAD 150

TOWNSHIP ROAD 19

TOWNSHIP ROAD 180

TOWNSHIP ROAD 119

SR 31

COUNTY ROAD 190

COUNTY ROAD 106

COUNTY ROAD 35

COUNTY ROAD 205

COUNTY ROAD 130

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