Total bridges
303
Public highway bridges in Sandusky County
County profile · official public datasets
Sandusky County, OH
303 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 71% rated Good, 27.1% Fair, 2% Poor.
- 303
- Public bridges
- 71%
- Good condition
- 2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sandusky County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 24%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2%
- Poor-condition share
- 303
- public highway bridges
- 1974
- 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.
Sandusky County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sandusky County ranks #21 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Sandusky County, Ohio contains 303 public highway bridges. Roughly 71% are rated “Good,” 27.1% “Fair,” and 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.
Good condition
71%
215 of 303 rated 7-9
Fair condition
27.1%
82 of 303 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2%
6 of 303 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#21 of 88
Among Ohio counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 303 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 71% (215)
Fair 27.1% (82)
Poor 2% (6)
Sandusky County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,276 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,046 crossings a day against 4,496 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 303 of 303 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
58.4% of Sandusky County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
177 of the 303 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 71% 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 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
TR 209 over SANDUSKY RIVER, built 1915, carries 2,227 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 6,276 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Sandusky County's bridges were built
303 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
91 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
52 bridges
- 1970s 33
1970–1979
33 bridges
- 1980s 30
1980–1989
30 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
42 bridges
- 2000s 31
2000–2009
31 bridges
- 2010s 9
2010–2019
9 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 91 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Ohio average (1977).
How Sandusky County compares with Ohio's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Ohio counties nearest Sandusky County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Ohio counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huron County | 311 | 58.2% | 33.8% | 8% | 1982 |
| Belmont County | 310 | 52.3% | 42.6% | 5.2% | 1982 |
| Athens County | 309 | 54% | 39.2% | 6.8% | 1975 |
| Washington County | 309 | 61.2% | 32.4% | 6.5% | 1974 |
| Ashtabula County | 305 | 72.5% | 23.9% | 3.6% | 1967 |
| Sandusky County (this page) | 303 | 71% | 27.1% | 2% | 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 Sandusky 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 Sandusky County, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside OH (303 bridges here).
- Pottawatomie County, KS · 303 bridges
- Callaway County, MO · 303 bridges
- Custer County, NE · 303 bridges
- Prince William County, VA · 303 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1974 here).
- Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
- Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
- Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
- Pierce County, WA · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (215)
SR 53
GoodOver: NORFOLK SOUTHERN RR
1 Mi. N. of USR 6, Sandusky, OH
Built 1956 Load: 64.5 t ADT: 11,393
SR 412
GoodOver: FULLER CREEK
5.25 mi. South of SR 101, Sandusky, OH
Built 1983 Load: 64.5 t ADT: 1,870
TOWNSHIP ROAD 154
GoodOver: GEO NEASON DITCH
.67 MI. NORTH OF TR 203, Sandusky, OH
Built 1967 Load: 64.8 t ADT: 502
TOWNSHIP ROAD 74
GoodOver: WOLFE CREEK
0.10 MILES S. OF TR 133, Sandusky, OH
Built 1968 Load: 64.8 t ADT: 209
TOWNSHIP ROAD 135
GoodOver: MUDDY CREEK
0.05 MILES EAST OF CR 128, Sandusky, OH
Built 1962 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 324
TR 59
GoodOver: GEO GRIES DITCH
1.18 MI. EAST OF TR 74, Sandusky, OH
Built 1968 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 159
TR 74
GoodOver: GEO GRIES DITCH
.18 MI. NORTH OF TR 55, Sandusky, OH
Built 1968 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 147
COUNTY ROAD 247
GoodOver: PICKEREL CREEK
0.24 MI. WEST C.R. 260, Sandusky, OH
Built 2008 Load: 71.3 t ADT: 381
I80 OH TPK
GoodOver: DITCH
10.5MI EAST OF EXIT 6, Sandusky, OH
Built 1954 Load: 74.5 t ADT: 42,820
I80 OH TPK
GoodOver: DITCH
11.6MI EAST OF EXIT 6, Sandusky, OH
Built 1954 Load: 74.5 t ADT: 42,820
TOWNSHIP ROAD 55
GoodOver: GEORGES GRIES DITCH
0.3 MI W CR 66, Sandusky, OH
Built 1994 Load: 74.5 t ADT: 351
COUNTY ROAD 260
GoodOver: STRONG CREEK
0.09 MILES SOUTH OF SR 6, Sandusky, OH
Built 1989 Load: 74.5 t ADT: 471
SR 412
GoodOver: SOUTH CREEK BRANCH
JCT TWP RD 220, Sandusky, OH
Built 2002 Load: 77.8 t ADT: 1,095
USR 20
GoodOver: TOUSSAINT CR BRANCH
800 FT E OF US 23, Sandusky, OH
Built 2004 Load: 84.2 t ADT: 10,873
TOWNSHIP ROAD 211
GoodOver: BARK CREEK
.5 MILES EAST OF CR 198, Sandusky, OH
Built 2011 Load: 90.7 t ADT: 324
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.