Total bridges
25
Public highway bridges in Benzie County
County profile · official public datasets
Benzie County, MI
25 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28% rated Good, 40% Fair, 32% Poor.
- 25
- Public bridges
- 28%
- Good condition
- 32%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Benzie 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.
- 83rd
- of 83 on Poor share
- 32%
- Poor-condition share
- 25
- public highway bridges
- 1969
- 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.
Benzie County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Benzie County ranks #83 of 83 Michigan counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 32%). Benzie County, Michigan contains 25 public highway bridges. Roughly 28% are rated “Good,” 40% “Fair,” and 32% “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
28%
7 of 25 rated 7-9
Fair condition
40%
10 of 25 rated 5-6
Poor condition
32%
8 of 25 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#83 of 83
Among Michigan counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 25 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 28% (7)
Fair 40% (10)
Poor 32% (8)
Benzie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,593 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 32% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 324 crossings a day against 376 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 25 of 25 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
52% of Benzie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
13 of the 25 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 28% 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 70.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
LINDY ROAD over BETSIE RIVER, built 1962, carries 1,826 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 2,593 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Benzie County's bridges were built
25 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s
1900–1909
3 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
2 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s 1
1990–1999
1 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 7 years older than the Michigan average of 1976.
How Benzie County compares with Michigan's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Michigan counties nearest Benzie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 32% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 11 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 82 Michigan counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake County | 30 | 43.3% | 40% | 16.7% | 1967 |
| Luce County | 28 | 39.3% | 42.9% | 17.9% | 1981 |
| Alcona County | 27 | 48.1% | 33.3% | 18.5% | 1982 |
| Otsego County | 25 | 16% | 76% | 8% | 1976 |
| Benzie County (this page) | 25 | 28% | 40% | 32% | 1969 |
| Montmorency County | 21 | 57.1% | 42.9% | 0% | 1995 |
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 Benzie 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 Benzie County, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MI (25 bridges here).
- Kodiak Island County, AK · 25 bridges
- Schley County, GA · 25 bridges
- Lane County, KS · 25 bridges
- Wibaux County, MT · 25 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MI (1969 here).
- Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
- Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
- Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
- Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (7)
REYNOLDS ROAD
GoodOver: PLATTE RIVER
3.3 MI N OF US-31, Benzie, MI
Built 2012 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 1,133
BURNT MILL ROAD
GoodOver: PLATTE RIVER
INLAND TWP SEC 4, Benzie, MI
Built 2010 Load: 36.9 t ADT: 53
M-22
GoodOver: PLATTE RIVER
7.5 MI SW OF LEELANAU COL, Benzie, MI
Built 2014 Load: 37.6 t ADT: 1,269
NESSEN ROAD
GoodOver: LITTLE BETSIE RIVER
0.9 MI N OF LINDY RD, Benzie, MI
Built 2014 Load: 37.6 t ADT: 20
WOLF ROAD
GoodOver: BETSIE RIVER
0.5 MI NW THOMPSONVILLE, Benzie, MI
Built 1998 Load: 37.9 t ADT: 49
HOOKER RD
GoodOver: N BR PLATTE RIVER
500 FT E OF GUDEMOOS RD, Benzie, MI
Built 2018 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 50
BENTLEY ROAD
GoodOver: LITTLE BETSIE RIVER
1.5 MI E OF CR-669, Benzie, MI
Built 2004 Load: 53.5 t ADT: 55
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.