County profile · official public datasets

Stark County, IL

93 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57% rated Good, 37.6% Fair, 5.4% Poor.

93
Public bridges: 57%
Good condition: 5.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Stark County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 20%
lowest Poor share in state: 5.4%
Poor-condition share: 93
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.

Stark County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stark County ranks #20 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.4%). Stark County, Illinois contains 93 public highway bridges. Roughly 57% are rated “Good,” 37.6% “Fair,” and 5.4% “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

Public highway bridges in Stark County

Good condition

57%

53 of 93 rated 7-9

Fair condition

37.6%

35 of 93 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.4%

5 of 93 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#20 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 93 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57% (53)

Fair

37.6% (35)

Poor

5.4% (5)

Stark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,400 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 480 crossings a day against 178 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 93 of 93 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

21.5% of Stark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

20 of the 93 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 57% 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 66.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IL 17/91 over SPOON RIVER, built 1924, carries 1,600 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,400 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

4
1910s

1
1920s

1
1940s

2
1950s

6
1960s

4
1970s

5
1980s

27
1990s

17
2000s

15
2010s

9
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29% 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 Stark County compares with Illinois's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Stark County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Stark County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Scott County	99	54.5%	38.4%	7.1%	1983
Alexander County	93	26.9%	64.5%	8.6%	1981
Stark County (this page)	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	88	63.6%	29.5%	6.8%	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 Stark 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 Stark County, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (93 bridges here).

Baker County, FL · 93 bridges
Banks County, GA · 93 bridges
Haralson County, GA · 93 bridges
Cumberland County, KY · 93 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 93 Good 53 Fair 35 Poor 5

All bridges (93)

Sort:

Stark County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Stark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,400 vehicle crossings a day

21.5% of Stark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 66.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Stark 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 (93)

CH 3 (FAS 373)

FAS 376-CH 7

700E (TR 52)

CH 8

FAS 208-CH 20

TR 20

TR 135

TR 114

ILL 78

ILL 78

ILL 91

FAS 373 - CH 4

CH 10

FAS 376-W JERSEY R

TR 25

TR 57

TR 120

TR 130

TR 118

TR 101

TR 124

CH 14

ILL 91

ILL 93

ILL 40

TR 46

ILL 40

ILL 40

ILL 93

OSCEOLA ROAD

ILL 78

IL 91

ILL 91

ILL 40

FAP 643-IL 17

TR 49

FAS 373 - CH 3

TR 128

FAS 1373-CH 5

TR 128

TR 124

CH 14

FAS 1378-CH 10

TR 13

FAS 1378-CH 7

CH-17 (Holmes Rd)

FAS 1374-CH 1

FAS 1376-CH 6

FAS 375-CH 11

CH 16

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