Total bridges
304
Public highway bridges in Coles County
County profile · official public datasets
Coles County, IL
304 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.5% rated Good, 51.6% Fair, 8.9% Poor.
- 304
- Public bridges
- 39.5%
- Good condition
- 8.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Coles County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 66th
- of 102 on Poor share
- 8.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 304
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Coles County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Coles County ranks #66 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.9%). Coles County, Illinois contains 304 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.5% are rated “Good,” 51.6% “Fair,” and 8.9% “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
39.5%
120 of 304 rated 7-9
Fair condition
51.6%
157 of 304 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8.9%
27 of 304 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#66 of 102
Among Illinois counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 304 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 39.5% (120)
Fair 51.6% (157)
Poor 8.9% (27)
Coles County's Poor-condition bridges carry 38,185 vehicle crossings a day
That is 6.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,414 crossings a day against 892 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 304 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
29.6% of Coles County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
90 of the 304 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 39.5% 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 25.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I-57 (SB) over Central Grain RR & TR 86, built 1965, carries 9,900 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 27-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 38,185 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Coles County's bridges were built
304 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 10
1900–1909
10 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s 11
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
45 bridges
- 1970s 20
1970–1979
20 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
95 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
44 bridges
- 2000s 31
2000–2009
31 bridges
- 2010s 25
2010–2019
25 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 95 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Illinois average (1979).
How Coles County compares with Illinois's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Illinois counties nearest Coles County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 101 Illinois counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin County | 310 | 77.1% | 20.3% | 2.6% | 1983 |
| Knox County | 304 | 49.3% | 39.5% | 11.2% | 1982 |
| Coles County (this page) | 304 | 39.5% | 51.6% | 8.9% | 1981 |
| Ford County | 302 | 55.6% | 38.1% | 6.3% | 1983 |
| Marion County | 296 | 62.5% | 31.1% | 6.4% | 1973 |
| Hancock County | 292 | 41.8% | 38% | 20.2% | 1977 |
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 Coles 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 Coles County, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IL (304 bridges here).
- Marshall County, IA · 304 bridges
- Osage County, KS · 304 bridges
- Nobles County, MN · 304 bridges
- Lincoln County, TN · 304 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- Shawnee County, KS · avg 1981 · 563 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (157)
CH 16
FairOver: S FORK INDIAN CREEK
4.0 MI S CHARLESTON, Coles, IL
Built 1937 Load: 65.4 t ADT: 950
I-57 (NB)
FairOver: SBI 16(FAU 7666)
0.5 MI N OF IL 16, Coles, IL
Built 1965 Load: 71.3 t ADT: 10,500
I-57 (SB)
FairOver: SBI 16(FAU 7666)
0.5 MI N OF IL 16, Coles, IL
Built 1965 Load: 71.3 t ADT: 10,500
I-57 (SB)
FairOver: ABANDONNED RR
JUST N OF IL 16, Coles, IL
Built 1965 Load: 71.9 t ADT: 10,500
I-57 (NB)
FairOver: ABANDONNED RR
JUST N OF IL 16, Coles, IL
Built 1965 Load: 71.9 t ADT: 10,500
FAS 674(CH 31)
FairOver: LITTLE WABASH RIVER
S END LAKE PARADISE, Coles, IL
Built 1938 Load: 76.5 t ADT: 1,450
CH 28
FairOver: STREAM
S EDGE OF LOXA, Coles, IL
Built 1973 Load: 82.9 t ADT: 2,600
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.