Total bridges
44
Public highway bridges in McCone County
County profile · official public datasets
McCone County, MT
44 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 11.4% rated Good, 79.5% Fair, 9.1% Poor.
- 44
- Public bridges
- 11.4%
- Good condition
- 9.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
McCone 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.
- 40th
- of 56 on Poor share
- 9.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 44
- 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.
McCone County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McCone County ranks #40 of 56 Montana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.1%). McCone County, Montana contains 44 public highway bridges. Roughly 11.4% are rated “Good,” 79.5% “Fair,” and 9.1% “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
11.4%
5 of 44 rated 7-9
Fair condition
79.5%
35 of 44 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9.1%
4 of 44 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#40 of 56
Among Montana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 44 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 11.4% (5)
Fair 79.5% (35)
Poor 9.1% (4)
McCone County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,136 vehicle crossings a day
That is 14.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 784 crossings a day against 582 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 44 of 44 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
65.9% of McCone County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
29 of the 44 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 11.4% 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 32.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
S 200 over CEMETERY COULEE, built 1939, carries 1,012 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 3,136 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When McCone County's bridges were built
44 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
9 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
9 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
9 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 9 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 10 years older than the Montana average of 1977.
How McCone County compares with Montana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Montana counties nearest McCone County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.1% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 11 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 55 Montana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judith Basin County | 48 | 56.3% | 31.3% | 12.5% | 1979 |
| Hill County | 46 | 58.7% | 34.8% | 6.5% | 1983 |
| Prairie County | 46 | 13% | 80.4% | 6.5% | 1962 |
| McCone County (this page) | 44 | 11.4% | 79.5% | 9.1% | 1967 |
| Chouteau County | 42 | 54.8% | 38.1% | 7.1% | 1981 |
| Carter County | 41 | 31.7% | 63.4% | 4.9% | 1985 |
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 McCone 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 McCone County, both outside Montana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MT (44 bridges here).
- Archuleta County, CO · 44 bridges
- Bacon County, GA · 44 bridges
- Pulaski County, GA · 44 bridges
- Rockdale County, GA · 44 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MT (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 (5)
S 201
GoodOver: REDWATER RIVER
17M NE VIDA, McCone, MT
Built 1957 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 39
VIDA EAST RD
GoodOver: WOLF CREEK 032
5M E VIDA, McCone, MT
Built 2006 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 100
S 13
GoodOver: DRAINAGE
1M N VIDA, McCone, MT
Built 1994 Load: 49.9 t ADT: 896
S 13
GoodOver: DRAINAGE
4M N VIDA, McCone, MT
Built 1994 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 896
IRR - S 13
GoodOver: DRAINAGE-STOCKPASS
11M N VIDA, McCone, MT
Built 1995 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 979
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.