Total bridges
30
Public highway bridges in Lake County
County profile · official public datasets
Lake County, MI
30 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.3% rated Good, 40% Fair, 16.7% Poor.
- 30
- Public bridges
- 43.3%
- Good condition
- 16.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lake 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.
- 63rd
- of 83 on Poor share
- 16.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 30
- public highway bridges
- 1967
- 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.
Lake County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lake County ranks #63 of 83 Michigan counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.7%). Lake County, Michigan contains 30 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.3% are rated “Good,” 40% “Fair,” and 16.7% “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
43.3%
13 of 30 rated 7-9
Fair condition
40%
12 of 30 rated 5-6
Poor condition
16.7%
5 of 30 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#63 of 83
Among Michigan counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 30 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.3% (13)
Fair 40% (12)
Poor 16.7% (5)
Lake County's Poor-condition bridges carry 496 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 99 crossings a day against 677 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 30 of 30 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
56.7% of Lake County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
17 of the 30 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 43.3% 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 36.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
QUEENS HIGHWAY over M BR PERE MARQUETTE RIV, built 1904, carries 180 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 496 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lake County's bridges were built
30 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
5 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
4 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1920s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 95 to 104 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 9 years older than the Michigan average of 1976.
How Lake County compares with Michigan's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Michigan counties nearest Lake County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 8 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 82 Michigan counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Traverse County | 33 | 51.5% | 42.4% | 6.1% | 1971 |
| Alpena County | 32 | 28.1% | 65.6% | 6.3% | 1970 |
| Ogemaw County | 31 | 22.6% | 74.2% | 3.2% | 1969 |
| Lake County (this page) | 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 |
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 Lake 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 Lake County, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MI (30 bridges here).
- Nome County, AK · 30 bridges
- Bleckley County, GA · 30 bridges
- Box Butte County, NE · 30 bridges
- Sargent County, ND · 30 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MI (1967 here).
- Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
- Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
- Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
- Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (13)
BASS LAKE RD FH36
GoodOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
4 MI SW OF IRONS, Lake, MI
Built 2007 Load: 32.8 t ADT: 642
S BROADWAY ST
GoodOver: COLE CREEK
0.31 MI S OF E 24TH ST, Lake, MI
Built 2021 Load: 34.3 t ADT: 50
11 MILE ROAD
GoodOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
6 MI W OF IRONS, Lake, MI
Built 1991 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 300
SKOOKUM
GoodOver: PINE RIVER
4.4 MI NE OF LUTHER, Lake, MI
Built 1958 Load: 42.5 t ADT: 780
M-37
GoodOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
7.5 MI S OF S WEXFORD COL, Lake, MI
Built 1939 Load: 45.7 t ADT: 2,500
DEPOT STREET
GoodOver: M BR PERE MARQUETTE RIV.
IN CHASE, Lake, MI
Built 2016 Load: 46.7 t ADT: 78
56 TH STREET FH32
GoodOver: PERE MARQUETTE RIVER
4 MI W OF BALDWIN, Lake, MI
Built 1997 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 1,400
JAMES ROAD
GoodOver: M BR PERE MARQUETTE RIV.
3 MILES SOUTH OF BALDWIN, Lake, MI
Built 2002 Load: 49.9 t ADT: 170
SADDLER ROAD
GoodOver: M BR PERE MARQUETTE RIV.
1 MILE EAST OF CHASE, Lake, MI
Built 2015 Load: 52.5 t ADT: 451
8TH ST
GoodOver: BALDWIN RIVER
0.5 MI E OF M-37, Lake, MI
Built 2023 Load: 59.0 t ADT: 694
6 MILE RD
GoodOver: PINE RIVER
3 MILES NE OF LUTHER, Lake, MI
Built 1996 Load: 59.6 t ADT: 190
76 TH STREET
GoodOver: SO BR PERE MARQUETTE RIV
3 MI S OF BALDWIN, Lake, MI
Built 1998 Load: 61.6 t ADT: 1,000
OLD M-63
GoodOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
11 MI N OF BALDWIN, Lake, MI
Built 2014 Load: 78.4 t ADT: 550
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.