County profile · official public datasets

Florence County, WI

20 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50% rated Good, 45% Fair, 5% Poor.

20
Public bridges
50%
Good condition
5%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Florence County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 35%
lowest Poor share in state
5%
Poor-condition share
20
public highway bridges
1974
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.

Florence County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Florence County ranks #25 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Florence County, Wisconsin contains 20 public highway bridges. Roughly 50% are rated “Good,” 45% “Fair,” and 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.

Total bridges

20

Public highway bridges in Florence County

Good condition

50%

10 of 20 rated 7-9

Fair condition

45%

9 of 20 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5%

1 of 20 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#25 of 72

Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 20 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
50% (10)
Fair
45% (9)
Poor
5% (1)

Florence County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,500 vehicle crossings a day

That is 15.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,500 crossings a day against 578 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 20 of 20 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40% of Florence County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

8 of the 20 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 50% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CTH N over MENOMINEE RIVER, built 1973, carries 3,500 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,500 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Florence County's bridges were built

20 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 6 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 10 years older than the Wisconsin average of 1984.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

How Florence County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Florence County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is 12 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Florence County and the 5 Wisconsin counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Green Lake County 48 2.1%
Adams County 41 2.4%
Door County 32 3.1%
Vilas County 29 10.3%
Menominee County 25 8%
Florence County (this page) 20 5%

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 Florence 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 Florence County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WI (20 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1974 here).

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 20 Good 10 Fair 9 Poor 1

All bridges (20)

LRD PENTOGA RD

Fair

Over: BRULE RIVER

8.0M N JCT STH 70, Florence, WI

Built 1930 Load: 11.3 t ADT: 22

FR 2398

Fair

Over: NO BRANCH POPPLE RIVER

5.3 MI E OF JCT STH 139, Florence, WI

Built 1958 Load: 12.6 t ADT: 50

STH 101

Fair

Over: PINE RIVER

9.6M N JCT CTH C, Florence, WI

Built 1939 Load: 17.8 t ADT: 750

LRD MORGAN LAKE RD

Fair

Over: POPPLE RIVER

3.4M W JCT STH 101, Florence, WI

Built 1983 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 153

FR 2156

Fair

Over: PINE RIVER

3 MI S OF JCT STH 70, Florence, WI

Built 1949 Load: 29.5 t ADT: 50

NO DATA ENTERED

Fair

Over: ELVOY CREEK

NO DATA ENTERED, Florence, WI

Built 2003 Load: 30.1 t ADT: 50

USH 2-USH 141

Fair

Over: MENOMINEE RIVER

AT MICHIGAN STATE LINE, Florence, WI

Built 1980 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 6,500

STH 139

Fair

Over: BRULE RIVER

1.4M N JCT STH 70 TO W, Florence, WI

Built 1989 Load: 38.9 t ADT: 1,500

USH 2-USH 141

Fair

Over: BRULE RIVER

MICHIGAN STATE LINE, Florence, WI

Built 1941 Load: 38.9 t ADT: 4,200

FR 2159

Good

Over: SO BRANCH POPPLE RIVER

6.0 MI N OF JCT USH 8, Florence, WI

Built 1980 Load: 13.0 t ADT: 50

STH 139

Good

Over: NICOLET STATE TRAIL

14.2M N JCT CTH O, Florence, WI

Built 1976 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 720

LRD NEWALD TOWER R

Good

Over: POPPLE RIVER

7.6M W JCT STH 101, Florence, WI

Built 1965 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 50

STH 101

Good

Over: POPPLE RIVER

4.1M N JCT CTH C, Florence, WI

Built 1949 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 520

CTH N

Good

Over: PINE RIVER

3.0M S JCT CTH D, Florence, WI

Built 1998 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 1,300

LRD ROCK CREEK RD

Good

Over: SOUTH BRANCH POPPLE RIVE

0.3M S NEWALD TOWER RD, Florence, WI

Built 2022 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 60

STH 139

Good

Over: POPPLE RIVER

9.3M N JCT CTH O, Florence, WI

Built 1979 Load: 37.3 t ADT: 770

LRD PINE RIVER RD

Good

Over: PINE RIVER

2.3M E JCT STH 139, Florence, WI

Built 1987 Load: 37.3 t ADT: 41

STH 139

Good

Over: PINE RIVER

16.2M N JCT CTH O, Florence, WI

Built 1981 Load: 40.5 t ADT: 770

CTH N

Good

Over: LITTLE POPPLE RIVER

4.0M N JCT CTH B, Florence, WI

Built 1997 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 1,500

CTH N

Poor

Over: MENOMINEE RIVER

2.0M E JCT CTH B, Florence, WI

Built 1973 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 3,500

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.