County profile · official public datasets

Christian County, IL

321 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 16.2% rated Good, 67% Fair, 16.8% Poor.

321
Public bridges: 16.2%
Good condition: 16.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

94th
of 102 on Poor share: 16.8%
Poor-condition share: 321
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Christian County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Christian County ranks #94 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.8%). Christian County, Illinois contains 321 public highway bridges. Roughly 16.2% are rated “Good,” 67% “Fair,” and 16.8% “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

321

Public highway bridges in Christian County

Good condition

16.2%

52 of 321 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67%

215 of 321 rated 5-6

Poor condition

16.8%

54 of 321 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#94 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 321 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

16.2% (52)

Fair

67% (215)

Poor

16.8% (54)

Christian County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,825 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 219 crossings a day against 2,200 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 321 of 321 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

48.6% of Christian County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

156 of the 321 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 16.2% 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 31.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IL 29 over MAIN DRAINAGE DITCH, built 1924, carries 3,750 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 54-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 11,825 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

26
1910s

11
1920s

18
1930s

5
1940s

10
1950s

39
1960s

39
1970s

14
1980s

53
1990s

43
2000s

35
2010s

21
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 10 years older than the Illinois average of 1979.

How Christian County compares with Illinois's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Christian County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 10 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 101 Illinois counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Christian County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Shelby County	335	56.4%	36.4%	7.2%	1978
Pike County	330	23.9%	66.1%	10%	1979
Henry County	328	49.4%	39.6%	11%	1978
Christian County (this page)	321	16.2%	67%	16.8%	1969
Adams County	319	40.4%	53.6%	6%	1976
Franklin County	310	77.1%	20.3%	2.6%	1983

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (321 bridges here).

Jackson County, IN · 321 bridges
Auglaize County, OH · 321 bridges
Columbiana County, OH · 321 bridges
Umatilla County, OR · 321 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1969 here).

Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges
Somerset County, PA · avg 1969 · 454 bridges

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

All 321 Good 52 Fair 215 Poor 54

Fair-condition bridges (215)

Sort:

Christian County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Christian County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,825 vehicle crossings a day

48.6% of Christian County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 31.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Christian County compares with Illinois'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 (215)

TR 270

TR 170

TR 210

TR 321 A

TR 228

TR 198

TR 55

TR 187

TR 277

TR 138

TR 107

TR 130A

TR 130

TR 192A

TR 138

TR-243

TR 198

TR 25

TR 216

TR 197

TR 0273

TR 242

TR 172

TR 311

TR 347

TR 321

CH 6-FAS642

CH-6 FAS 642

TR 176

TR 74

TR 129

TR 144

TR 272A

TR 275

TR 349A

TR 181

TR 181

TR 170

TR 343

TR 112

TR 4A

TR 283

TR 214

TR 165 A

TR 261

TR 243

TR 90

TR 165 A

TR 321 A

TR 245

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