County profile · official public datasets

Pottawatomie County, OK

408 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.6% rated Good, 72.1% Fair, 6.4% Poor.

408
Public bridges: 21.6%
Good condition: 6.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pottawatomie 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 49%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.4%
Poor-condition share: 408
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Pottawatomie County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pottawatomie County ranks #38 of 77 Oklahoma counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.4%). Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma contains 408 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.6% are rated “Good,” 72.1% “Fair,” and 6.4% “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

408

Public highway bridges in Pottawatomie County

Good condition

21.6%

88 of 408 rated 7-9

Fair condition

72.1%

294 of 408 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.4%

26 of 408 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#38 of 77

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

Condition distribution

Share of 408 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

21.6% (88)

Fair

72.1% (294)

Poor

6.4% (26)

Pottawatomie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 52,155 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,006 crossings a day against 4,429 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 408 of 408 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.3% of Pottawatomie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

148 of the 408 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 21.6% 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 32.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-40 over U.S. 177 UNDER, built 1961, carries 16,750 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 26-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 52,155 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

3
1930s

26
1940s

35
1950s

18
1960s

58
1970s

11
1980s

49
1990s

64
2000s

109
2010s

30
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 109 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1982, 5 years newer than the Oklahoma average of 1977.

How Pottawatomie County compares with Oklahoma's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Oklahoma counties nearest Pottawatomie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 8 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 76 Oklahoma counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pottawatomie County and the 5 Oklahoma counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Caddo County	424	24.1%	63.4%	12.5%	1979
Kay County	419	30.3%	63.7%	6%	1979
Pittsburg County	411	47.2%	45%	7.8%	1971
Pottawatomie County (this page)	408	21.6%	72.1%	6.4%	1982
Muskogee County	398	37.7%	52.3%	10.1%	1971
Creek County	395	40.5%	38.7%	20.8%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OK (408 bridges here).

Union County, NJ · 409 bridges
Benton County, AR · 410 bridges
Jefferson County, MO · 411 bridges
Coconino County, AZ · 405 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OK (1982 here).

Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges
Broward County, FL · avg 1982 · 686 bridges

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

All 408 Good 88 Fair 294 Poor 26

Fair-condition bridges (294)

Sort:

Pottawatomie County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pottawatomie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 52,155 vehicle crossings a day

36.3% of Pottawatomie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 32.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pottawatomie County compares with Oklahoma'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 (294)

E1400

N3580

6374C

E1140

N3370

DAM RD.

E1140

E1370

E1420

N3550

CO. RD. N3300

HERITAGE ROAD

E1350

E1250

6338C

6385C

6372C

6360C

E1370

E1370

6360C

N3550

UNION ST.

PATTERSON RD.

N3440

N3490

6396C

WOLVERINE RD

E1360

E1190

E1190

N3490

6308C

E1110

6306C

6366C

LAKE RD

E1080

6316C

6316C

OAKLAND ST

6314C

NS3400

E1080

TENTH

05421

6304C

6306C

LAKE RD.

JOHN C. BURTON

Related