Total bridges
649
Public highway bridges in Will County
County profile · official public datasets
Will County, IL
649 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.1% rated Good, 46.4% Fair, 10.5% Poor.
- 649
- Public bridges
- 43.1%
- Good condition
- 10.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Will County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.
- 76th
- of 102 on Poor share
- 10.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 649
- 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.
Will County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Will County ranks #76 of 102 Illinois counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.5%). Will County, Illinois contains 649 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.1% are rated “Good,” 46.4% “Fair,” and 10.5% “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.
Good condition
43.1%
280 of 649 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46.4%
301 of 649 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.5%
68 of 649 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#76 of 102
Among Illinois counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 649 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.1% (280)
Fair 46.4% (301)
Poor 10.5% (68)
Will County's Poor-condition bridges carry 825,585 vehicle crossings a day
That is 13% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 12,141 crossings a day against 7,646 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 647 of 649 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
33% of Will County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
214 of the 649 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 43.1% 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 12.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I- 55 over IL 53, built 1980, carries 106,200 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 68-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 825,585 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Will County's bridges were built
649 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 13
1900–1909
13 bridges
- 1910s 7
1910–1919
7 bridges
- 1920s 16
1920–1929
16 bridges
- 1930s 17
1930–1939
17 bridges
- 1940s 12
1940–1949
12 bridges
- 1950s 38
1950–1959
38 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
90 bridges
- 1970s 41
1970–1979
41 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
87 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
119 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
132 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
60 bridges
- 2020s 16
2020–2029
16 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 132 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1983) matches the Illinois average (1979).
How Will County compares with Illinois's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Illinois counties nearest Will County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 101 Illinois counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champaign County | 727 | 58.9% | 32.5% | 8.7% | 1982 |
| Will County (this page) | 649 | 43.1% | 46.4% | 10.5% | 1983 |
| McLean County | 624 | 60.9% | 36.2% | 2.9% | 1981 |
| Livingston County | 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 |
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 Will 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 Will County, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IL (649 bridges here).
- San Joaquin County, CA · 644 bridges
- Washington County, PA · 655 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · 641 bridges
- Alameda County, CA · 658 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.
Poor-condition bridges (68)
WALSH RD.
PoorOver: FORKED CREEK
200 N. WILM. PE. RD, Will, IL
Built 1978 Load: 36.9 t ADT: 50
CENTER ST NB
PoorOver: I- 80 WB TO CENTERSB
1 M W IL53-.08 N I80, Will, IL
Built 1967 Load: 37.3 t ADT: 1,775
BRUCE ST
PoorOver: FRACTION RUN
1.7 MI E IL 171, Will, IL
Built 1968 Load: 37.3 t ADT: 2,400
I- 80 EB
PoorOver: JOLIET JNCT PED/BIKE
1 M W IL 7, Will, IL
Built 1964 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 19,350
I- 80 WB
PoorOver: JOLIET JNCT PED/BIKE
1 M W OF IL 7, Will, IL
Built 1964 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 19,350
MAPLE RD
PoorOver: I- 80
1.9m E of 355 alg 80, Will, IL
Built 1966 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 8,000
PARKER RD.
PoorOver: LONG RUN CREEK
0.5 MI N W 143rd St., Will, IL
Built 1988 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 4,350
I- 80 EB TO CENTER
PoorOver: CENTER ST SB
I-80 & CENTER ST, Will, IL
Built 1966 Load: 40.2 t ADT: 1,350
PARKER RD
PoorOver: SPRING CREEK
0.4 M S 167TH ST, Will, IL
Built 1994 Load: 40.2 t ADT: 3,600
RICHARD ST
PoorOver: HICKORY CREEK
0.1 M N OF I-80, Will, IL
Built 1967 Load: 41.1 t ADT: 12,100
US 6
PoorOver: DES PLAINES RIVER
0.25 M W IL 53, Will, IL
Built 1934 Load: 42.4 t ADT: 9,800
BAUER RD
PoorOver: TERRY CREEK
2.5 W. ILL 113, Will, IL
Built 1975 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 175
I- 80 WB
PoorOver: HICKORY CREEK
0.3 M E OF IL-53, Will, IL
Built 1965 Load: 50.9 t ADT: 45,600
I- 55
PoorOver: IL 53
2 M W OF COOK CO, Will, IL
Built 1980 Load: 52.8 t ADT: 106,200
INDIAN BOUNDRY
PoorOver: SPRING HOLE CR
1.6M W OF IL59, Will, IL
Built 1980 Load: 54.1 t ADT: 2,200
I- 80 WB TO MEDOW
PoorOver: CENTER SB TO I-80 EB
0.25 SW US52-N I80, Will, IL
Built 1966 Load: 57.7 t ADT: 1,100
IL 7
PoorOver: RR - EJ&E
0.04 M E OF IL 53, Will, IL
Built 1990 Load: 63.2 t ADT: 24,400
80TH AV
PoorOver: UNION DRAINAGE DITCH
0.20 MI S I-80, Will, IL
Built 1900 Load: 72.6 t ADT: 15,700
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.