County profile · official public datasets

Edgar County, IL

278 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.7% rated Good, 45.3% Fair, 4% Poor.

278
Public bridges: 50.7%
Good condition: 4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Edgar County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 10%
lowest Poor share in state: 4%
Poor-condition share: 278
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Edgar County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Edgar County ranks #10 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4%). Edgar County, Illinois contains 278 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.7% are rated “Good,” 45.3% “Fair,” and 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

278

Public highway bridges in Edgar County

Good condition

50.7%

141 of 278 rated 7-9

Fair condition

45.3%

126 of 278 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11 of 278 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 278 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.7% (141)

Fair

45.3% (126)

Poor

4% (11)

Edgar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,375 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 398 crossings a day against 296 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 277 of 278 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

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

101 of the 278 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 50.7% 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 74.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 150(FAP 91) over Decatur & Eastern IL RR, built 1967, carries 3,250 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,375 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

4
1910s

2
1920s

6
1930s

6
1940s

8
1950s

26
1960s

26
1970s

48
1980s

75
1990s

38
2000s

20
2010s

15
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 75 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Illinois average (1979).

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

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Edgar County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1981 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Edgar County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hancock County	292	41.8%	38%	20.2%	1977
Whiteside County	278	19.1%	72.3%	8.6%	1977
Edgar County (this page)	278	50.7%	45.3%	4%	1977
Rock Island County	272	46%	49.3%	4.8%	1983
Grundy County	269	40.5%	32.7%	26.8%	1984
Wayne County	266	54.1%	36.8%	9%	1982

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (278 bridges here).

Elkhart County, IN · 278 bridges
Vanderburgh County, IN · 279 bridges
Navajo County, AZ · 277 bridges
Delaware County, IN · 277 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 278 Good 141 Fair 126 Poor 11

Fair-condition bridges (126)

Sort:

Edgar County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Edgar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,375 vehicle crossings a day

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

One structure carries 74.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Edgar 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 (126)

CH 8(FAS 679)

TR 68 A

IL 1 US 150(FAP 33

TR 138 A

IL 16 (FAP 91)

IL 49(FAP 836)

TR 89

FAS 1678(CH 3)

CH 8(FAS 679)

IL 1 US 150(FAP 33

FAS 1678(CH 3)

CH 11(FAS 686)

TR 289

TR 64

US 150IL 1(FAP 332

FAU 7560(CLINTON R

IL 133(FAP 749)

FAS 678(CH 1)

TR 70 A

TR 7 A(CLARK CO)

TR 235A

CH 8

CH 18

TR 274

TR 87

TR 72 A

TR 213

TR 240

TR 75

TR 95

TR 383

TR 355

TR 220

TR 317

TR 275 / 600th Roa

TR 227

TR 18

TR 74

TR 137A

TR 42

TR 61

TR 108

TR 169 A

TR 68

TR 233

TR 175 A

TR 49

TR 149

TR 116

TR 105

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