Total bridges
135
Public highway bridges in Douglas County
County profile · official public datasets
Douglas County, WI
135 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 51.1% rated Good, 36.3% Fair, 12.6% Poor.
- 135
- Public bridges
- 51.1%
- Good condition
- 12.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Douglas County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 67th
- of 72 on Poor share
- 12.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 135
- public highway bridges
- 1984
- 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.
Douglas County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Douglas County ranks #67 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.6%). Douglas County, Wisconsin contains 135 public highway bridges. Roughly 51.1% are rated “Good,” 36.3% “Fair,” and 12.6% “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
51.1%
69 of 135 rated 7-9
Fair condition
36.3%
49 of 135 rated 5-6
Poor condition
12.6%
17 of 135 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#67 of 72
Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 135 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 51.1% (69)
Fair 36.3% (49)
Poor 12.6% (17)
Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 35,776 vehicle crossings a day
That is 10.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,104 crossings a day against 1,999 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 135 of 135 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
27.4% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
37 of the 135 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 51.1% 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 92.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I 535 over ST LOUIS R; RR STREET, built 1961, carries 33,021 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 17-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 35,776 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Douglas County's bridges were built
135 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 4
1910–1919
4 bridges
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 2
1950–1959
2 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
16 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
26 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
24 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
22 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
16 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Wisconsin average (1984).
How Douglas County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Douglas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.6% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln County | 157 | 49% | 44.6% | 6.4% | 1982 |
| Rusk County | 151 | 49.7% | 44.4% | 6% | 1989 |
| Oconto County | 149 | 55.7% | 40.9% | 3.4% | 1986 |
| Marinette County | 135 | 57.8% | 36.3% | 5.9% | 1986 |
| Douglas County (this page) | 135 | 51.1% | 36.3% | 12.6% | 1984 |
| Racine County | 133 | 58.6% | 31.6% | 9.8% | 1991 |
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 Douglas 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 Douglas County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WI (135 bridges here).
- Nevada County, CA · 135 bridges
- Meriwether County, GA · 135 bridges
- Steuben County, IN · 135 bridges
- Warren County, IN · 135 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1984 here).
- Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
- Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
- El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
- Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (17)
LRD PATZAU RD
PoorOver: BALSAM CREEK
0.7M E JCT CTH B, Douglas, WI
Built 1968 Load: 4.9 t ADT: 86
LRD S MAIL RD
PoorOver: EAU CLAIRE RIVER
0.1M S JCT CTH Y, Douglas, WI
Built 1967 Load: 4.9 t ADT: 220
LRD LIDBERG BRIDGE
PoorOver: EAU CLAIRE RIVER
1.0M N JCT CTH G, Douglas, WI
Built 1950 Load: 4.9 t ADT: 75
LRD AFTER HOURS RD
PoorOver: NEBAGAMON CREEK
0.7M N JCT CTH B, Douglas, WI
Built 1925 Load: 8.1 t ADT: 53
LRD W MAIL RD
PoorOver: ST CROIX RIVER 13
2.9M S JCT CTH M, Douglas, WI
Built 1963 Load: 16.2 t ADT: 107
LRD MOONSHINE ROAD
PoorOver: POPLAR RIVER
0.3M E JCT CTH D, Douglas, WI
Built 1935 Load: 17.8 t ADT: 75
LRD DEDHAM RD
PoorOver: BALSAM CREEK
2.0M N JCT CTH B, Douglas, WI
Built 1917 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 75
LRD OLIPHANT RD
PoorOver: AMNICON RIVER
3.7M S JCT CTH B, Douglas, WI
Built 1967 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 21
I 535
PoorOver: ST LOUIS R; RR STREET
1.3 SE OF JCT TH 35, Douglas, WI
Built 1961 Load: 20.7 t ADT: 33,021
LRD IRONDALE RD
PoorOver: POKEGAMA RIVER
1.0M S JCT CTH W, Douglas, WI
Built 1930 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 75
CTH B
PoorOver: AMNICON RIVER
0.3M E JCT CTH L, Douglas, WI
Built 1977 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 688
LRD MIDDLE RIVER R
PoorOver: POPLAR RIVER
0.2M W OF CTH P, Douglas, WI
Built 1935 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 101
LRD GARETH RD (DEA
PoorOver: POKEGAMA RIVER
2.2M N JCT CTH C, Douglas, WI
Built 1918 Load: 29.2 t ADT: 10
CTH M
PoorOver: MOOSE RIVER
6.9M W JCT USH 53, Douglas, WI
Built 1934 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 325
LRD KINGSDALE RD
PoorOver: SPRUCE RIVER
5.5M W JCT STH 35, Douglas, WI
Built 1930 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 53
CTH B
PoorOver: NEBAGAMON CREEK
0.7M E JCT CTH S, Douglas, WI
Built 1969 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 790
LRD OLD HWY 2 RD (
PoorOver: BOIS BRULE RIVER
0.2M S JCT USH 2, Douglas, WI
Built 1929 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 1
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.