County profile · official public datasets

Vermilion County, IL

494 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 27.7% rated Good, 65% Fair, 7.3% Poor.

494
Public bridges: 27.7%
Good condition: 7.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 46%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.3%
Poor-condition share: 494
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Vermilion County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Vermilion County ranks #47 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.3%). Vermilion County, Illinois contains 494 public highway bridges. Roughly 27.7% are rated “Good,” 65% “Fair,” and 7.3% “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

494

Public highway bridges in Vermilion County

Good condition

27.7%

137 of 494 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65%

321 of 494 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.3%

36 of 494 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#47 of 102

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

Condition distribution

Share of 494 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

27.7% (137)

Fair

65% (321)

Poor

7.3% (36)

Vermilion County's Poor-condition bridges carry 70,240 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,951 crossings a day against 1,689 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 493 of 494 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

33.2% of Vermilion County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

164 of the 494 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 27.7% 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 27.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IL.1/US 150(FAP 33 over I-74 & CD16.23/16.33, built 1965, carries 19,500 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 36-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 70,240 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

16
1910s

3
1920s

3
1930s

21
1940s

14
1950s

25
1960s

68
1970s

45
1980s

108
1990s

82
2000s

57
2010s

41
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 108 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Illinois average (1979).

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

The 5 Illinois counties nearest Vermilion County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Vermilion County and the 5 Illinois counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
LaSalle County	528	39.4%	48.3%	12.3%	1978
Madison County	523	49.3%	42.3%	8.4%	1979
Vermilion County (this page)	494	27.7%	65%	7.3%	1979
St. Clair County	486	50%	40.9%	9.1%	1977
Winnebago County	467	31.3%	61.7%	7.1%	1978
Sangamon County	466	56.9%	36.9%	6.2%	1981

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IL (494 bridges here).

Greene County, MO · 493 bridges
Canadian County, OK · 493 bridges
Bernalillo County, NM · 496 bridges
Oneida County, NY · 496 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IL (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 494 Good 137 Fair 321 Poor 36

Fair-condition bridges (321)

Sort:

Vermilion County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Vermilion County's Poor-condition bridges carry 70,240 vehicle crossings a day

33.2% of Vermilion County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 27.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Vermilion 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

Fair-condition bridges (321)

FAS 513(CH 18)

FAS 512(CH 8)

FAU 7045(BOWMAN AV

TR 243

FAS 513(CH 18)

FAS 506(CH 7)

I-74 (EB)

CH 26

FAU 6998(CH 20)

TR 34 B

IL 1 (FAP 332)

OREGON (FAU 7047)

TR 179 A

I-74 (WB)

FAS 331(CH 10)

TR 179 A

TR 101

FAS 509(CH 23)

CH 11

IL 1(FAP 332)

I-74 (WB)

TR 5 C

I-74 EB & RAMP 21.

TR 13 A

BACK BONE RD(FAS 5

TR 15

US 150 (FAS 1512)

FAS 512(CH 8)

FAU 7045(Bowman Av

TR 34 B

FAP 840(IL 49)

I-74 (WB)

IL 1 US 150 (FAP 3

I-74(EB)

I-74 (EB)

FAS 1511

I-74 (EB)

IL 1 (FAP 332)

US 150(FAP 729)

TR 34 B

BISMARCK RD(FAS497

IL 9 (FAP 697)

TR 261

BOWMAN AV(FAU 7045

IL 1 US 136 (FAP 3

IL 1 (FAP 332)

CH 11

TR 427

IL 49(FAP 840)

FAS 331(CH 10)

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