County profile · official public datasets

Morgan County, IL

234 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.7% rated Good, 42.7% Fair, 8.5% Poor.

234
Public bridges: 48.7%
Good condition: 8.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

62nd
of 102 on Poor share: 8.5%
Poor-condition share: 234
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Morgan County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Morgan County ranks #62 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.5%). Morgan County, Illinois contains 234 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.7% are rated “Good,” 42.7% “Fair,” and 8.5% “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

234

Public highway bridges in Morgan County

Good condition

48.7%

114 of 234 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42.7%

100 of 234 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8.5%

20 of 234 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#62 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 234 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

48.7% (114)

Fair

42.7% (100)

Poor

8.5% (20)

Morgan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 22,250 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,113 crossings a day against 1,393 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 234 of 234 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

20.9% of Morgan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

49 of the 234 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 48.7% 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 40.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IL 267/US 67/BL 67 over I-72/US 36, built 1975, carries 9,100 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 22,250 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

6
1920s

3
1930s

4
1940s

4
1950s

9
1960s

17
1970s

41
1980s

44
1990s

48
2000s

43
2010s

13
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1984, 5 years newer than the Illinois average of 1979.

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

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Morgan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 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 Morgan County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Morgan County (this page)	234	48.7%	42.7%	8.5%	1984
Washington County	233	50.6%	43.3%	6%	1973
Douglas County	232	76.3%	22.4%	1.3%	1982
Clark County	230	62.6%	32.6%	4.8%	1978
Jackson County	228	66.2%	27.2%	6.6%	1987
McHenry County	227	41.4%	38.3%	20.3%	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 Morgan 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 Morgan County, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (234 bridges here).

Prince of Wales-Hyder County, AK · 234 bridges
Lyon County, MN · 234 bridges
Jackson County, NC · 234 bridges
Eastland County, TX · 234 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges

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

All 234 Good 114 Fair 100 Poor 20

Good-condition bridges (114)

Sort:

Morgan County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Morgan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 22,250 vehicle crossings a day

20.9% of Morgan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 40.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Morgan 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

Good-condition bridges (114)

TR 142

FAU 8179

TR 253

TR 181

TR 381

TR 49

FAS 613

TR 50

OLD US 36

TR 312

TR 167

FAS 1615

TR 102

TR 373

TR 222

TR 36

TR 51

TR 232

TR 359

FAS 611

CH 16

TR 87

TR 360

CH 16

TR 4

TR 30A

TR 406

TR 347

TR 186

FAS 613

TR 60

TR 36

TR 272

TR-128

TR 359

TR 23

CH-12

TR 367

TR 46

TR 128

TR 254

TR-324

TR 232

TR 134A

TR 198

TR 330

CH 28

TR 82

TR 277

TR-300

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