County profile · official public datasets

Holmes County, OH

208 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.3% rated Good, 53.8% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

208
Public bridges: 43.3%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 40%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 208
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Holmes County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Holmes County ranks #35 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Holmes County, Ohio contains 208 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.3% are rated “Good,” 53.8% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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

208

Public highway bridges in Holmes County

Good condition

43.3%

90 of 208 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.8%

112 of 208 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

6 of 208 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#35 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 208 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.3% (90)

Fair

53.8% (112)

Poor

2.9% (6)

Holmes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,363 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,561 crossings a day against 1,384 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 208 of 208 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.3% of Holmes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

88 of the 208 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 43.3% 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 64.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 83 over MARTIANS CREEK, built 1983, carries 6,022 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,363 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

2
1910s

1
1920s

12
1930s

13
1940s

6
1950s

18
1960s

21
1970s

19
1980s

21
1990s

34
2000s

28
2010s

23
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Ohio average (1977).

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

The 5 Ohio counties nearest Holmes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Holmes County and the 5 Ohio counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Putnam County	213	54.9%	40.4%	4.7%	1982
Lake County	210	52.9%	38.6%	8.6%	1973
Clinton County	209	73.7%	24.4%	1.9%	1979
Noble County	208	45.2%	47.6%	7.2%	1959
Holmes County (this page)	208	43.3%	53.8%	2.9%	1978
Meigs County	207	45.4%	51.7%	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 Holmes 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 Holmes County, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OH (208 bridges here).

Muscogee County, GA · 208 bridges
Posey County, IN · 208 bridges
Marshall County, KY · 208 bridges
Caldwell County, MO · 208 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 208 Good 90 Fair 112 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (112)

Sort:

Holmes County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Holmes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,363 vehicle crossings a day

42.3% of Holmes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 64.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Holmes 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 (112)

TOWNSHIP ROAD 253

SR 39

TOWNSHIP ROAD 14

STATE ROUTE 3

SR 3

SR 39

US 62

SR 83

SR 754

COUNTY ROAD 192

TOWNSHIP ROAD 553

TOWNSHIP ROAD 552

SR 83

C.R. 19

COUNTY ROAD 333

TOWNSHIP ROAD 660

USR 62

TOWNSHIP ROAD 556

SR 60

COUNTY ROAD 50

COUNTY ROAD 621

TOWNSHIP ROAD 655

SR 39

COUNTY ROAD 25

SR 83

SR 39

COUNTY ROAD 10

COUNTY ROAD 58

TOWNSHIP ROAD 654

COUNTY ROAD 400

COUNTY ROAD 192

TOWNSHIP ROAD 601

SR 754

COUNTY ROAD 400

COUNTY ROAD 235

COUNTY ROAD 59

COUNTY ROAD 320

COUNTY ROAD 201

TOWNSHIP ROAD 606

COUNTY ROAD 189

COUNTY ROAD 1

TOWNSHIP ROAD 412

TOWNSHIP ROAD 414

TOWNSHIP ROAD 519

TOWNSHIP ROAD 568

TOWNSHIP ROAD 171

TOWNSHIP ROAD 669

DUNKER ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 330

COUNTY ROAD 100

Related