County profile · official public datasets

Monroe County, IN

232 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 62.1% rated Good, 35.8% Fair, 2.2% Poor.

232
Public bridges: 62.1%
Good condition: 2.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Monroe County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 17%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.2%
Poor-condition share: 232
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Monroe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Monroe County ranks #16 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.2%). Monroe County, Indiana contains 232 public highway bridges. Roughly 62.1% are rated “Good,” 35.8% “Fair,” and 2.2% “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

232

Public highway bridges in Monroe County

Good condition

62.1%

144 of 232 rated 7-9

Fair condition

35.8%

83 of 232 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.2%

5 of 232 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 232 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

62.1% (144)

Fair

35.8% (83)

Poor

2.2% (5)

Monroe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,332 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 666 crossings a day against 6,314 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 231 of 232 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

27.6% of Monroe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

64 of the 232 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 62.1% 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 79.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

N. EAGELSON AVENUE over INDIANA RR CO, built 1952, carries 2,652 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 3,332 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

2
1930s

5
1940s

4
1950s

3
1960s

20
1970s

45
1980s

34
1990s

32
2000s

34
2010s

48
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1988, 10 years newer than the Indiana average of 1978.

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Monroe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 11 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Monroe County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Greene County	239	43.9%	46.9%	9.2%	1982
Monroe County (this page)	232	62.1%	35.8%	2.2%	1988
Johnson County	230	41.3%	50.4%	8.3%	1983
LaPorte County	227	33.5%	59.9%	6.6%	1972
Rush County	227	25.6%	70.5%	4%	1970
St. Joseph County	227	49.8%	45.4%	4.8%	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 Monroe 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 Monroe County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (232 bridges here).

Douglas County, IL · 232 bridges
Pearl River County, MS · 232 bridges
Gaston County, NC · 232 bridges
Atoka County, OK · 232 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Grant County, OK · avg 1988 · 476 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges

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

All 232 Good 144 Fair 83 Poor 5

Good-condition bridges (144)

Sort:

Monroe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Monroe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,332 vehicle crossings a day

27.6% of Monroe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 79.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Monroe 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

Good-condition bridges (144)

W VERNAL PK/W 17TH

I-69 SB

VERNAL PIKE

I-69 SB

SR 46 EBL

SR 46 WBL

POPCORN ROAD

NORTH SHORE ROAD

COVENANTER DRIVE

SR 46

SR 46 EBL

MCNEELY STREET

SR 46

ROCKPORT RD N

GETTYS CREEK ROAD

TOM PHILLIPS ROAD

VICTOR PIKE

BREEDEN ROAD

OLD SR 37 N

I-69 NB

GARRISON CHAPEL RD

ROGERS STREET

KENT ROAD

TAPP ROAD

MT. PLEASANT ROAD

KINSER PIKE

SARE ROAD

BURCH ROAD

SR 45

SAMPLE ROAD

BUSINESS 37 SOUTH

CHAMBERS PIKE

I-69 SB

BURCH ROAD

I-69 SB

I-69 SB

I-69 SB

I-69 NB

SR 46 EBL

FIRST STREET

HUNTERS CREEK ROAD

BOTTOM ROAD

ROGERS ROAD

I-69 NB/SB

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