Total bridges
35
Public highway bridges in Manistee County
County profile · official public datasets
Manistee County, MI
35 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40% rated Good, 45.7% Fair, 14.3% Poor.
- 35
- Public bridges
- 40%
- Good condition
- 14.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Manistee County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 54th
- of 83 on Poor share
- 14.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 35
- public highway bridges
- 1979
- 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.
Manistee County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Manistee County ranks #54 of 83 Michigan counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 14.3%). Manistee County, Michigan contains 35 public highway bridges. Roughly 40% are rated “Good,” 45.7% “Fair,” and 14.3% “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
40%
14 of 35 rated 7-9
Fair condition
45.7%
16 of 35 rated 5-6
Poor condition
14.3%
5 of 35 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#54 of 83
Among Michigan counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 35 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40% (14)
Fair 45.7% (16)
Poor 14.3% (5)
Manistee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 15,840 vehicle crossings a day
That is 28.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 14.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,168 crossings a day against 1,099 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 35 of 35 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
42.9% of Manistee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
15 of the 35 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 40% 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 93.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-31 over MANISTEE RIVER, built 1933, carries 14,770 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 15,840 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Manistee County's bridges were built
35 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
4 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 3
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 1990s 2
1990–1999
2 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
9 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 9 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Michigan average (1976).
How Manistee County compares with Michigan's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Michigan counties nearest Manistee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 14.3% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 5 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 82 Michigan counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dickinson County | 37 | 43.2% | 40.5% | 16.2% | 1971 |
| Emmet County | 37 | 67.6% | 32.4% | 0% | 1988 |
| Presque Isle County | 37 | 43.2% | 45.9% | 10.8% | 1972 |
| Manistee County (this page) | 35 | 40% | 45.7% | 14.3% | 1979 |
| Grand Traverse County | 33 | 51.5% | 42.4% | 6.1% | 1971 |
| Alpena County | 32 | 28.1% | 65.6% | 6.3% | 1970 |
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 Manistee 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 Manistee County, both outside Michigan so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MI (35 bridges here).
- Seminole County, GA · 35 bridges
- Toole County, MT · 35 bridges
- Ransom County, ND · 35 bridges
- Gilliam County, OR · 35 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MI (1979 here).
- Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
- Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
- Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
- McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (16)
JOHNSON ROAD
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
5.95 MILES EAST OF US-31, Manistee, MI
Built 1970 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 300
SKOCELAS ROAD
FairOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
15 MI SE OF MANISTEE, Manistee, MI
Built 1984 Load: 29.2 t ADT: 401
NINE MILE ROAD
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
1.5 MILES WEST OF KALEVA, Manistee, MI
Built 1977 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 2,006
RIVER ROAD
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
7.0 MILES S W OF BRETHER, Manistee, MI
Built 1976 Load: 31.4 t ADT: 300
SPRINGDALE RD
FairOver: DUTCHMAN CREEK
1 MILE WEST OF COPEMISH, Manistee, MI
Built 1987 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 899
COATES HIGHWAY
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
2.0 MILES N W OF BRETHER, Manistee, MI
Built 1958 Load: 33.4 t ADT: 900
M-55
FairOver: PINE CREEK
10.8 MI W OF WEXFORD COL, Manistee, MI
Built 1932 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 4,202
M-55
FairOver: PINE RIVER
4.2 MI W OF WEXFORD COL, Manistee, MI
Built 1934 Load: 39.5 t ADT: 3,175
M-22
FairOver: RICHLEY CREEK
2.5 MI S OF BENZIE COL, Manistee, MI
Built 1964 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 2,206
M-115
FairOver: BETSIE RIVER
0.6 MI SE OF BENZIE COL, Manistee, MI
Built 1940 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 4,219
M-115
FairOver: BEAR CREEK
2.7 MI SE OF BENZIE COL, Manistee, MI
Built 1937 Load: 44.7 t ADT: 2,670
11 MILE ROAD
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
4 MI NW OF KALEVA, Manistee, MI
Built 1987 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 50
COATES HIGHWAY
FairOver: ARQUILLA CREEK
740 FT N OF COATES HWY, Manistee, MI
Built 2016 Load: 45.7 t ADT: 249
JOHNSON ROAD
FairOver: KALEVA CREEK
6.28 MI E OF US-31, Manistee, MI
Built 2010 Load: 58.0 t ADT: 300
POTTER ROAD
FairOver: BIG BEAR CREEK
5 MILES EAST OF BEAR LK, Manistee, MI
Built 1966 Load: 79.4 t ADT: 200
EAST LAKE ROAD
FairOver: LITTLE MANISTEE RIVER
STRONACH, Manistee, MI
Built 1964 Load: 91.4 t ADT: 3,000
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.