Total bridges
254
Public highway bridges in Manatee County
County profile · official public datasets
Manatee County, FL
254 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55.1% rated Good, 44.1% Fair, 0.8% Poor.
- 254
- Public bridges
- 55.1%
- Good condition
- 0.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Manatee County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 28%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 254
- public highway bridges
- 1983
- 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.
Manatee County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Manatee County ranks #19 of 67 Florida counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.8%). Manatee County, Florida contains 254 public highway bridges. Roughly 55.1% are rated “Good,” 44.1% “Fair,” and 0.8% “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.
Good condition
55.1%
140 of 254 rated 7-9
Fair condition
44.1%
112 of 254 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.8%
2 of 254 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#19 of 67
Among Florida counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 254 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 55.1% (140)
Fair 44.1% (112)
Poor 0.8% (2)
Manatee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,584 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,292 crossings a day against 17,172 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 254 of 254 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
37.8% of Manatee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
96 of the 254 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 55.1% 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 67.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
9TH STREET WEST over CEDAR HAMMOCK CANAL, built 1960, carries 3,084 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 4,584 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Manatee County's bridges were built
254 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
32 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
39 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
29 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
57 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
30 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
32 bridges
- 2010s 20
2010–2019
20 bridges
- 2020s 11
2020–2029
11 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 57 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1983) matches the Florida average (1983).
How Manatee County compares with Florida's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Florida counties nearest Manatee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 66 Florida counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Osceola County | 255 | 62.4% | 37.6% | 0% | 1985 |
| Manatee County (this page) | 254 | 55.1% | 44.1% | 0.8% | 1983 |
| Escambia County | 250 | 44.4% | 52% | 3.6% | 1984 |
| Brevard County | 249 | 51.4% | 47.8% | 0.8% | 1981 |
| Volusia County | 238 | 58.8% | 39.1% | 2.1% | 1984 |
| Walton County | 229 | 36.2% | 57.6% | 6.1% | 1988 |
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 Manatee 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 Manatee County, both outside Florida so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside FL (254 bridges here).
- Ottawa County, MI · 254 bridges
- Wagoner County, OK · 254 bridges
- Coos County, OR · 254 bridges
- Adams County, PA · 254 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside FL (1983 here).
- Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
- Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
- Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
- Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.