Total bridges
238
Public highway bridges in Lafayette County
County profile · official public datasets
Lafayette County, MO
238 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.9% rated Good, 65.5% Fair, 2.5% Poor.
- 238
- Public bridges
- 31.9%
- Good condition
- 2.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lafayette County posts a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 3%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 238
- public highway bridges
- 1980
- 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.
Lafayette County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lafayette County ranks #3 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.5%). Lafayette County, Missouri contains 238 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.9% are rated “Good,” 65.5% “Fair,” and 2.5% “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
31.9%
76 of 238 rated 7-9
Fair condition
65.5%
156 of 238 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.5%
6 of 238 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#3 of 115
Among Missouri counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 238 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 31.9% (76)
Fair 65.5% (156)
Poor 2.5% (6)
Lafayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 30,058 vehicle crossings a day
That is 6.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5,010 crossings a day against 889 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 238 of 238 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
39.1% of Lafayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
93 of the 238 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 31.9% 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 60.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
IS 70 E over KCS RR, built 1950, carries 18,206 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 30,058 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lafayette County's bridges were built
238 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 14
1920–1929
14 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
19 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 15
1950–1959
15 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
31 bridges
- 1970s 16
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s 15
1980–1989
15 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
32 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
39 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
43 bridges
- 2020s 7
2020–2029
7 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 43 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Missouri average (1979).
How Lafayette County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Missouri counties nearest Lafayette County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buchanan County | 246 | 34.1% | 58.1% | 7.7% | 1981 |
| Pettis County | 243 | 43.6% | 45.3% | 11.1% | 1975 |
| St. Louis city County | 240 | 31.3% | 58.8% | 10% | 1982 |
| Lafayette County (this page) | 238 | 31.9% | 65.5% | 2.5% | 1980 |
| DeKalb County | 237 | 35% | 56.5% | 8.4% | 1985 |
| Lawrence County | 233 | 46.4% | 42.1% | 11.6% | 1971 |
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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette County, both outside Missouri so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MO (238 bridges here).
- Volusia County, FL · 238 bridges
- Huntingdon County, PA · 238 bridges
- Buffalo County, WI · 238 bridges
- Greene County, IN · 239 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1980 here).
- Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
- Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
- Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
- McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (6)
RT Y S
PoorOver: IS 70
S 6 T 48 N R 24 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1960 Load: 16.2 t ADT: 924
MO 131 S
PoorOver: IS 70
S 35 T 49 N R 29 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1963 Load: 20.7 t ADT: 6,797
RT U E
PoorOver: BLACKJACK CR
S 14 T 48 N R 26 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1958 Load: 25.2 t ADT: 542
IS 70 E
PoorOver: KCS RR
S 36 T 49 N R 28 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1950 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 18,206
MO 20 E
PoorOver: CR
S 25 T 50 N R 26 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1928 Load: 43.2 t ADT: 1,890
MO 20 E
PoorOver: SALT FK CR
S 24 T 50 N R 25 W, Lafayette, MO
Built 1969 Load: 79.2 t ADT: 1,699
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.