County profile · official public datasets

McLean County, KY

75 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 8% rated Good, 81.3% Fair, 10.7% Poor.

75
Public bridges: 8%
Good condition: 10.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

McLean County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

97th
of 120 on Poor share: 10.7%
Poor-condition share: 75
public highway bridges: 1963
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.

McLean County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McLean County ranks #97 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.7%). McLean County, Kentucky contains 75 public highway bridges. Roughly 8% are rated “Good,” 81.3% “Fair,” and 10.7% “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 McLean County

Good condition

6 of 75 rated 7-9

Fair condition

81.3%

61 of 75 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10.7%

8 of 75 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#97 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 75 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

8% (6)

Fair

81.3% (61)

Poor

10.7% (8)

McLean County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,014 vehicle crossings a day

That is 11.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,252 crossings a day against 181 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 75 of 75 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

62.7% of McLean County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

47 of the 75 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 8% 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 30.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-136 over MYER CREEK, built 1956, carries 3,076 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 10,014 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

7
1930s

13
1940s

6
1950s

14
1960s

5
1970s

7
1980s

5
1990s

12
2000s

2
2010s

2
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 15 years older than the Kentucky average of 1978.

How McLean County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest McLean County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 15 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for McLean County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Wolfe County	77	54.5%	41.6%	3.9%	1979
Wayne County	76	22.4%	61.8%	15.8%	1978
Mercer County	75	32%	61.3%	6.7%	1982
McLean County (this page)	75	8%	81.3%	10.7%	1963
Carlisle County	74	35.1%	62.2%	2.7%	1973
Montgomery County	74	23%	66.2%	10.8%	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 McLean 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 McLean County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (75 bridges here).

Washington County, CO · 75 bridges
Bradford County, FL · 75 bridges
Toombs County, GA · 75 bridges
Dent County, MO · 75 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1963 here).

Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges

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

All 75 Good 6 Fair 61 Poor 8

Fair-condition bridges (61)

Sort:

McLean County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

McLean County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,014 vehicle crossings a day

62.7% of McLean County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 30.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How McLean County compares with Kentucky'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 (61)

KY-1412

US-431

KY-81

KY-256

KY-1080

KY-56

US-431

KY-798

KY-56

KY-815

CR-1210

KY-136

KY-1792

KY-81

RICHLAND ROAD

KY-136

KY-81

KY-2437

KY-136

KY-85

KY-136

KY-81

RICHLAND ROAD

KY-85

US-431

US-431

CS-4015

HICKS ROAD

BUNN-COBB ROAD

J.I. WEST ROAD

SCOTTS BRIDGE ROAD

KY-138

KY-250

KY-250

KY-140

BARRETT HILL RD

ATHERTON ROAD

KY-81

KY-250

US-431

US-431

KY-136

KY-140

KY-140

KY-1080

KY 593

POND DRAIN ROAD

RICHLAND ROAD

KY-797

KY-1046

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