County profile · official public datasets

Livingston County, IL

579 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 51.8% rated Good, 39.9% Fair, 8.3% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

579
Public bridges: 51.8%
Good condition: 8.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Livingston County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

57th
of 102 on Poor share: 8.3%
Poor-condition share: 579
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Livingston County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Livingston County ranks #57 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.3%). Livingston County, Illinois contains 579 public highway bridges. Roughly 51.8% are rated “Good,” 39.9% “Fair,” and 8.3% “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.

Total bridges

579

Public highway bridges in Livingston County

Good condition

51.8%

300 of 579 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.9%

231 of 579 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8.3%

48 of 579 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#57 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 579 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

51.8% (300)

Fair

39.9% (231)

Poor

8.3% (48)

Livingston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 30,010 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 625 crossings a day against 552 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 577 of 579 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.4% of Livingston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

228 of the 579 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 51.8% 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 13% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

ILL 23 over I-55, built 1972, carries 3,900 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 48-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 30,010 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

2
1920s

31
1930s

19
1940s

21
1950s

45
1960s

74
1970s

83
1980s

102
1990s

80
2000s

56
2010s

49
2020s

15

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 102 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Illinois average (1979).

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

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Livingston County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Livingston County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Will County	649	43.1%	46.4%	10.5%	1983
McLean County	624	60.9%	36.2%	2.9%	1981
Livingston County (this page)	579	51.8%	39.9%	8.3%	1978
Iroquois County	570	46.5%	39.1%	14.4%	1980
LaSalle County	528	39.4%	48.3%	12.3%	1978
Madison County	523	49.3%	42.3%	8.4%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (579 bridges here).

Bergen County, NJ · 577 bridges
Prince George's County, MD · 576 bridges
Philadelphia County, PA · 585 bridges
Reno County, KS · 573 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Buncombe County, NC · avg 1978 · 555 bridges

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

All 579 Good 300 Fair 231 Poor 48

All bridges (579)

Sort:

Livingston County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Livingston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 30,010 vehicle crossings a day

39.4% of Livingston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 13% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Livingston 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

All bridges (579)

TR 157

TR 29

TR 210B

TR 244C

TR 258A

TR 1G

TR 5

TR 34

TR 175

TR 238

TR137

TR 268D

TR 152A

TR 218

TR 207A

TR 250

TR 241

TR 114

TR 18

TR 41D

TR 35

TR 223

TR 57

TR 1D

TR 233A

TR 10A

TR 201A

TR 119

TR125

TR 2 KKK

TR 2

TR 85A

TR 41D

TR 135

TR 107

TR 141

FAU 6344

TR 111B

TR 85

TR 224B

TR 136

TR 29

TR166

TR 190

TR 187

TR 111B

TR86

TR 60

TR 237A

TR10

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