Total bridges
75
Public highway bridges in McLean County
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.
Good condition
8%
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.
When McLean County's bridges were built
75 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
13 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
14 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
7 bridges
- 1980s 5
1980–1989
5 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
12 bridges
- 2000s 2
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s 2
2010–2019
2 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (6)
KY-256
GoodOver: PORTERS DITCH
3.6 MI W OF JCT KY 81, McLean, KY
Built 1987 Load: 36.4 t ADT: 242
KY 2385
GoodOver: BR OF POND DRAIN CR
0.75 MI WEST JCT KY 81, McLean, KY
Built 2018 Load: 38.9 t ADT: 145
McGEE CHAPEL ROAD
GoodOver: UNNAMED STREAM TO GREEN
0.4 MI N. JCT KY 56, McLean, KY
Built 1955 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 30
BEULAH CHURCH ROAD
GoodOver: BR OF LONG FALLS CREEK
.6 MI E. JCT KY 593, McLean, KY
Built 1990 Load: 45.1 t ADT: 194
CR 1215 Bell Road
GoodOver: _Fork of Cypress Creek
1.0 mi N Jct KY1155, McLean, KY
Built 2016 Load: 46.5 t ADT: 32
KY 140
GoodOver: Stroud Creek
1.3 MI W OF JCT KY 81, McLean, KY
Built 2022 Load: 50.5 t ADT: 440
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.