County profile · official public datasets

Morgan County, OH

159 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.8% rated Good, 43.4% Fair, 3.8% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

159
Public bridges: 52.8%
Good condition: 3.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Morgan County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 48%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.8%
Poor-condition share: 159
public highway bridges: 1962
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.

Morgan County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Morgan County ranks #42 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.8%). Morgan County, Ohio contains 159 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.8% are rated “Good,” 43.4% “Fair,” and 3.8% “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

159

Public highway bridges in Morgan County

Good condition

52.8%

84 of 159 rated 7-9

Fair condition

43.4%

69 of 159 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.8%

6 of 159 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#42 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 159 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

52.8% (84)

Fair

43.4% (69)

Poor

3.8% (6)

Morgan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,194 vehicle crossings a day

That is 11% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,699 crossings a day against 679 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 159 of 159 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

64.8% of Morgan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

103 of the 159 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 52.8% 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 87.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY ROAD 203 over MUSKINGUM RIVER, built 1913, carries 8,919 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 10,194 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

3
1900s

6
1910s

6
1920s

7
1930s

13
1940s

16
1950s

37
1960s

12
1970s

4
1980s

7
1990s

27
2000s

7
2010s

13
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 37 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1962, 15 years older than the Ohio average of 1977.

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

The 5 Ohio counties nearest Morgan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 15 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Morgan County and the 5 Ohio counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Paulding County	176	69.3%	24.4%	6.3%	1986
Perry County	175	66.9%	31.4%	1.7%	1974
Monroe County	167	42.5%	47.3%	10.2%	1963
Morgan County (this page)	159	52.8%	43.4%	3.8%	1962
Defiance County	158	77.8%	20.9%	1.3%	1991
Ottawa County	158	65.8%	32.9%	1.3%	1973

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OH (159 bridges here).

Franklin County, IN · 159 bridges
Decatur County, KS · 159 bridges
Cheyenne County, NE · 159 bridges
Fulton County, PA · 159 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1962 here).

Berks County, PA · avg 1962 · 667 bridges
Pecos County, TX · avg 1962 · 470 bridges
Bristol County, MA · avg 1962 · 384 bridges
Norfolk County, MA · avg 1962 · 343 bridges

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

All 159 Good 84 Fair 69 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (84)

Sort:

Morgan County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Morgan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,194 vehicle crossings a day

64.8% of Morgan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 87.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Morgan 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

Good-condition bridges (84)

TOWNSHIP ROAD 199

COUNTY ROAD 27

TOWNSHIP ROAD 237

TOWNSHIP ROAD 1161

COUNTY ROAD 5

COUNTY ROAD 11

COUNTY ROAD 13

COUNTY ROAD 17

COUNTY ROAD 39

COUNTY ROAD 42

SR 555

TOWNSHIP ROAD 77A

COUNTY ROAD 79

COUNTY ROAD 5

COUNTY ROAD 11

TOWNSHIP ROAD 134

SR 78

TOWNSHIP ROAD 243

COUNTY ROAD 52

COUNTY ROAD 73

COUNTY ROAD 45

TOWNSHIP ROAD 262

SR 37

SR 377

SR 60

SR 78

SR 83

TOWNSHIP ROAD 322

T97 Woodbry-Belvle

SR 78

SR 37

SR 60

SR 60

SR 266

SR 376

SR 376

SR 555

COUNTY ROAD 62

TOWNSHIP ROAD 225

TOWNSHIP ROAD 242

COUNTY ROAD 25

TOWNSHIP ROAD 357

TOWNSHIP ROAD 3

COUNTY ROAD 85

COUNTY ROAD 2

COUNTY ROAD 4

COUNTY ROAD 47

COUNTY ROAD 17

COUNTY ROAD 52

COUNTY ROAD 52

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