County profile · official public datasets

Shelby County, OH

277 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 74% rated Good, 23.5% Fair, 2.5% Poor.

277
Public bridges: 74%
Good condition: 2.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 35%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.5%
Poor-condition share: 277
public highway bridges: 1989
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.

Shelby County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Shelby County ranks #31 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.5%). Shelby County, Ohio contains 277 public highway bridges. Roughly 74% are rated “Good,” 23.5% “Fair,” and 2.5% “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

277

Public highway bridges in Shelby County

Good condition

74%

205 of 277 rated 7-9

Fair condition

23.5%

65 of 277 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.5%

7 of 277 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 277 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

74% (205)

Fair

23.5% (65)

Poor

2.5% (7)

Shelby County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,814 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 469 crossings a day against 2,331 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 277 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

25.6% of Shelby County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

71 of the 277 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 74% 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

SPRUCE AVENUE over CSX RAILROAD, built 1924, carries 1,000 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,814 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1920s

3
1930s

2
1950s

5
1960s

52
1970s

23
1980s

22
1990s

45
2000s

88
2010s

30
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 88 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 12 years newer than the Ohio average of 1977.

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

The 5 Ohio counties nearest Shelby County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Shelby 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 (this page)	277	74%	23.5%	2.5%	1989
Hardin County	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 Shelby 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 Shelby County, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OH (277 bridges here).

Navajo County, AZ · 277 bridges
Delaware County, IN · 277 bridges
Porter County, IN · 277 bridges
Florence County, SC · 277 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OH (1989 here).

Harris County, TX · avg 1989 · 4,029 bridges
Mecklenburg County, NC · avg 1989 · 746 bridges
Buffalo County, NE · avg 1989 · 459 bridges
Brazos County, TX · avg 1989 · 370 bridges

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

All 277 Good 205 Fair 65 Poor 7

All bridges (277)

Sort:

Shelby County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Shelby County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,814 vehicle crossings a day

25.6% of Shelby County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Shelby 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

All bridges (277)

SMALLEY ROAD

S FOURTH AVENUE

SR-119

THOMPSON SCHIFF RD

LUTHMAN ROAD

SR-274

SIDNEY FREYBURG

IR-75

SR-29

CR-45

SR-219

SR-705

MORRIS ROSE ROAD

FESSLER BUXTON RD

HARDIN WAPAKONETA

LOCHARD ROAD

WENGER ROAD

SR-47

SR-47

IR-75

CR-25A

IR-75

SR-119

MCCLOSKEY SCHOOL

CHILDRENS HOME RD

SR-66

SHARP ROAD

MERANDA ROAD

HARDIN WAPAKONETA

STOKER ROAD

SCHLATER ROAD

SR-29

HIGHLAND AVENUE

SR-47

IR-75

IR-75

SR 119

SR-362

SR-362

TAWAWA MAPLEWOOD

KUTHER ROAD

PASCO MONTRA ROAD

PASCO MONTRA ROAD

SR-47

IR-75

S FOURTH AVENUE

MCCLURE ROAD

CARDO ROAD

SR-705

MAPLEWOOD ROAD

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