Total bridges
118
Public highway bridges in Madison County
County profile · official public datasets
Madison County, MO
118 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 33.1% rated Good, 47.5% Fair, 19.5% Poor.
- 118
- Public bridges
- 33.1%
- Good condition
- 19.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Madison 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.
- 109th
- of 115 on Poor share
- 19.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 118
- public highway bridges
- 1965
- 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.
Madison County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Madison County ranks #109 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 19.5%). Madison County, Missouri contains 118 public highway bridges. Roughly 33.1% are rated “Good,” 47.5% “Fair,” and 19.5% “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
33.1%
39 of 118 rated 7-9
Fair condition
47.5%
56 of 118 rated 5-6
Poor condition
19.5%
23 of 118 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#109 of 115
Among Missouri counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 118 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 33.1% (39)
Fair 47.5% (56)
Poor 19.5% (23)
Madison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,551 vehicle crossings a day
That is 6.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 19.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 502 crossings a day against 1,980 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 118 of 118 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
61% of Madison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
72 of the 118 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 33.1% 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 62.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
MINE LA MOTTE AVE over SALINE CR, built 1931, carries 7,222 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 23-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 11,551 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Madison County's bridges were built
118 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
22 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
16 bridges
- 1940s 7
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
16 bridges
- 1970s 6
1970–1979
6 bridges
- 1980s 7
1980–1989
7 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
14 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
10 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
9 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1920s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 95 to 104 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 14 years older than the Missouri average of 1979.
How Madison County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Missouri counties nearest Madison County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 19.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perry County | 120 | 27.5% | 55% | 17.5% | 1965 |
| Schuyler County | 120 | 65.8% | 30.8% | 3.3% | 1989 |
| Laclede County | 119 | 31.1% | 58.8% | 10.1% | 1971 |
| Crawford County | 118 | 28.8% | 63.6% | 7.6% | 1970 |
| Madison County (this page) | 118 | 33.1% | 47.5% | 19.5% | 1965 |
| Ripley County | 116 | 33.6% | 61.2% | 5.2% | 1965 |
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 Madison 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 Madison County, both outside Missouri so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MO (118 bridges here).
- Autauga County, AL · 118 bridges
- Perry County, AR · 118 bridges
- Montrose County, CO · 118 bridges
- Rabun County, GA · 118 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1965 here).
- Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
- Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
- Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
- Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (56)
MO 72 E
FairOver: US 67
S 12 T 33 N R 6 E, Madison, MO
Built 2012 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 4,808
RT NN S
FairOver: DRY CR
S 4 T 33 N R 8 E, Madison, MO
Built 1967 Load: 49.5 t ADT: 282
US 67 S
FairOver: TWELVE MILE CR
S 17 T 32 N R 7 E, Madison, MO
Built 1921 Load: 53.1 t ADT: 2,359
US 67 S
FairOver: LEHMEYER CR
S 27 T 34 N R 6 E, Madison, MO
Built 1963 Load: 54.0 t ADT: 10,995
US 67 S
FairOver: MUSCO CR
S 22 T 34 N R 6 E, Madison, MO
Built 1963 Load: 55.8 t ADT: 10,995
RT E W
FairOver: MILL CR
S 350 T 33 N R 7 E, Madison, MO
Built 1999 Load: 87.3 t ADT: 3,336
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.