County profile · official public datasets

Pope County, IL

88 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 63.6% rated Good, 29.5% Fair, 6.8% Poor.

88
Public bridges: 63.6%
Good condition: 6.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 41%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.8%
Poor-condition share: 88
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.

Pope County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pope County ranks #42 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.8%). Pope County, Illinois contains 88 public highway bridges. Roughly 63.6% are rated “Good,” 29.5% “Fair,” and 6.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Pope County

Good condition

63.6%

56 of 88 rated 7-9

Fair condition

29.5%

26 of 88 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.8%

6 of 88 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#42 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 88 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

63.6% (56)

Fair

29.5% (26)

Poor

6.8% (6)

Pope County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,350 vehicle crossings a day

That is 15.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,058 crossings a day against 320 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 88 of 88 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

27.3% of Pope County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

24 of the 88 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 63.6% 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 28.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

ILL 145 over BEAR CREEK DITCH, built 1932, carries 1,800 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,350 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

4
1940s

7
1950s

2
1960s

6
1970s

6
1980s

18
1990s

16
2000s

12
2010s

12
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 18 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 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1983) matches the Illinois average (1979).

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

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Pope County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 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 Pope County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Alexander County	93	26.9%	64.5%	8.6%	1981
Stark County	93	57%	37.6%	5.4%	1983
Menard County	89	40.4%	49.4%	10.1%	1980
Wabash County	89	61.8%	32.6%	5.6%	1983
Pope County (this page)	88	63.6%	29.5%	6.8%	1983
Mason County	86	33.7%	61.6%	4.7%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (88 bridges here).

Chicot County, AR · 88 bridges
Prairie County, AR · 88 bridges
Grand County, CO · 88 bridges
Spalding County, GA · 88 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.

All 88 Good 56 Fair 26 Poor 6

All bridges (88)

Sort:

Pope County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pope County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,350 vehicle crossings a day

27.3% of Pope County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 28.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pope 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 (88)

ILL 146

FAS 0930

TR 91A FDR 443

TR 45

TR 88 OFF ILL 146

ILL 146

ILL 145

TR 64

TR 14

TR 55

TR 55

TR 88A

TR 6

TR 157A CLANAHAN R

TR 24

TR 146

TR 9

TR 137

ILL 34

ILL 145

TR 161

ILL 146

ILL 145

ILL 146

ILL 145

ILL 145

FAS 1930

ILL 145

FAS 1930

FAS 1930

FAS 1930

TR 100

TR 130

TR 139

TR 57

TR 88A

TR 115

TR 71A

TR 154

TR 7

TR 88A

TR 45

TR 45

TR 45

FAS 930

TR 130

TR 38

TR 14

TR 115

TR 9

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