Total bridges
302
Public highway bridges in Ford County
County profile · official public datasets
Ford County, IL
302 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55.6% rated Good, 38.1% Fair, 6.3% Poor.
- 302
- Public bridges
- 55.6%
- Good condition
- 6.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Ford County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 30%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 6.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 302
- 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.
Ford County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ford County ranks #31 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.3%). Ford County, Illinois contains 302 public highway bridges. Roughly 55.6% are rated “Good,” 38.1% “Fair,” and 6.3% “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
55.6%
168 of 302 rated 7-9
Fair condition
38.1%
115 of 302 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.3%
19 of 302 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#31 of 102
Among Illinois counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 302 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 55.6% (168)
Fair 38.1% (115)
Poor 6.3% (19)
Ford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,950 vehicle crossings a day
That is 7.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 682 crossings a day against 470 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 301 of 302 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
32.5% of Ford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
98 of the 302 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 55.6% 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 81.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
FAI 57 NBL over BIG FOUR DITCH, built 1968, carries 10,550 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 19-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 12,950 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Ford County's bridges were built
302 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1930s 6
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 10
1950–1959
10 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
43 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
65 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
67 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
51 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
31 bridges
- 2010s 21
2010–2019
21 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 67 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.2% 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 Illinois average (1979).
How Ford County compares with Illinois's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Illinois counties nearest Ford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1979 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 |
| Coles County | 304 | 39.5% | 51.6% | 8.9% | 1981 |
| Knox County | 304 | 49.3% | 39.5% | 11.2% | 1982 |
| Ford County (this page) | 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 Ford 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 Ford County, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IL (302 bridges here).
- Chickasaw County, IA · 302 bridges
- Madison County, NE · 302 bridges
- Pottawatomie County, KS · 303 bridges
- Callaway County, MO · 303 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IL (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
- Bernalillo County, NM · avg 1983 · 496 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (19)
TR 119 DIX
PoorOver: DICKERSON SLOUGH
640E 50N, Ford, IL
Built 1974 Load: 12.6 t ADT: 75
TR 91 PATTON
PoorOver: WALL TOWN DR DITCH
1540E 500N, Ford, IL
Built 1974 Load: 14.6 t ADT: 375
TR 11 MONA
PoorOver: KELLY CREEK
1560E 3400N, Ford, IL
Built 1973 Load: 14.6 t ADT: 75
TR 7 MONA
PoorOver: STREAM
1580E 3600N, Ford, IL
Built 1967 Load: 15.2 t ADT: 25
TR 58 MONA
PoorOver: KELLY CREEK
3530N 1500E, Ford, IL
Built 1965 Load: 17.5 t ADT: 25
TR 19
PoorOver: STREAM
1210E 2900N, Ford, IL
Built 1996 Load: 20.1 t ADT: 50
THAWVILLE RD
PoorOver: STREAM
1510E 1900N, Ford, IL
Built 1936 Load: 21.4 t ADT: 75
CH 8 GALLAHUE
PoorOver: STREAM
1210E 2800N, Ford, IL
Built 1958 Load: 22.4 t ADT: 50
TR 27 PELLA
PoorOver: STREAM
1390 E 2600N, Ford, IL
Built 1970 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 75
TR 48A
PoorOver: STREAM
2760N 1299E, Ford, IL
Built 1988 Load: 23.7 t ADT: 50
CH 18 BUCKINGHAM R
PoorOver: STREAM
3630N 1600E, Ford, IL
Built 1964 Load: 25.3 t ADT: 50
ILL 115
PoorOver: DRAINAGE DITCH
3.66 MI S OF ILL 116, Ford, IL
Built 1981 Load: 25.6 t ADT: 675
CLARENCE RD FAS 5
PoorOver: SUGAR CREEK
240N 2600E, Ford, IL
Built 1959 Load: 25.6 t ADT: 250
CH19 PIPER THAWVIL
PoorOver: N FK VERMILION RIVER
2320N 1700E, Ford, IL
Built 1976 Load: 25.6 t ADT: 75
CH 16 PIPER CITY R
PoorOver: N FORK VERMILLION
1560E 2500N, Ford, IL
Built 1959 Load: 26.6 t ADT: 150
TR 48A BRENTON
PoorOver: STREAM
1300E 2270N, Ford, IL
Built 1973 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 50
TR 60B PELLA
PoorOver: PELLA DRAINAGE DITCH
2910N 1600E, Ford, IL
Built 1980 Load: 27.9 t ADT: 25
FAI 57 NBL
PoorOver: BIG FOUR DITCH
2.37 MI S OF ILL 9, Ford, IL
Built 1968 Load: 29.5 t ADT: 10,550
CH 26 STEVES RD
PoorOver: THE BIG FOUR
360N 1500E, Ford, IL
Built 1966 Load: 30.5 t ADT: 250
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.