County profile · official public datasets

Madison County, IN

301 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.5% rated Good, 52.5% Fair, 3% Poor.

301
Public bridges: 44.5%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 29%
lowest Poor share in state: 3%
Poor-condition share: 301
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Madison County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Madison County ranks #27 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Madison County, Indiana contains 301 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.5% are rated “Good,” 52.5% “Fair,” and 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

301

Public highway bridges in Madison County

Good condition

44.5%

134 of 301 rated 7-9

Fair condition

52.5%

158 of 301 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9 of 301 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 301 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44.5% (134)

Fair

52.5% (158)

Poor

3% (9)

Madison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 55,548 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,172 crossings a day against 4,563 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 301 of 301 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.9% of Madison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

132 of the 301 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 44.5% 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 41.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-69 SB over ABANDONED RR, built 1962, carries 23,226 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 55,548 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

2
1920s

7
1930s

16
1940s

5
1950s

19
1960s

66
1970s

19
1980s

68
1990s

45
2000s

28
2010s

25
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 68 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Indiana average (1978).

How Madison County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Madison County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Madison County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jackson County	321	43.9%	53.6%	2.5%	1981
Madison County (this page)	301	44.5%	52.5%	3%	1978
Vigo County	296	44.9%	50.7%	4.4%	1977
Boone County	293	39.9%	55.3%	4.8%	1974
Knox County	290	40%	55.2%	4.8%	1976
Putnam County	290	30.3%	51%	18.6%	1963

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (301 bridges here).

Cedar County, IA · 301 bridges
Crawford County, IA · 301 bridges
Penobscot County, ME · 301 bridges
Harrison County, MS · 301 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Buncombe County, NC · avg 1978 · 555 bridges

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

All 301 Good 134 Fair 158 Poor 9

Fair-condition bridges (158)

Sort:

Madison County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Madison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 55,548 vehicle crossings a day

43.9% of Madison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 41.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Madison County compares with Indiana'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 (158)

CR 500N

CR 900S

CR 200N

SR 128

SR 38

CR 300W

CR 200E

CR 400N

NEW COLUMBUS AVE

I-69 NB

CR 750W

CR 600N

CR 1600N

CR 1400N

CR 700W

CR 500E

CR 1250N

SR 38

SR 13

CR 150W

CR 600N

CR 525W

CR 1700N

SR 109

CR 1300N

CR 700W

CR 475W

CR 1100S

CR 300E

CR 500N

CR 1100S

CR 1625N

CR 50W

CR 1100S

CR 1100S

CR 1300N

CR 1050S

CR 1100S

CR 375E

CR 500E

CR 700W

CR 675W

CR 500S

CR 1800N

CR 700N

CR 875W

CR 800S

SR 9

CR 1500N

CR 200W

Related