Total bridges
218
Public highway bridges in Jackson County
County profile · official public datasets
Jackson County, WI
218 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.2% rated Good, 55% Fair, 7.8% Poor.
- 218
- Public bridges
- 37.2%
- Good condition
- 7.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Jackson 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.
- 47th
- of 72 on Poor share
- 7.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 218
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Jackson County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jackson County ranks #47 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.8%). Jackson County, Wisconsin contains 218 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.2% are rated “Good,” 55% “Fair,” and 7.8% “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
37.2%
81 of 218 rated 7-9
Fair condition
55%
120 of 218 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.8%
17 of 218 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 72
Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 218 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 37.2% (81)
Fair 55% (120)
Poor 7.8% (17)
Jackson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,068 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,063 crossings a day against 1,974 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 218 of 218 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
50.5% of Jackson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
110 of the 218 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 37.2% 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 67.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
IH 94 WB over UNION PACIFIC RR, built 1968, carries 12,200 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 18,068 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Jackson County's bridges were built
218 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
25 bridges
- 1940s 11
1940–1949
11 bridges
- 1950s 9
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
50 bridges
- 1970s 12
1970–1979
12 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
24 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
41 bridges
- 2000s 19
2000–2009
19 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 10
2020–2029
10 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 50 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1975, 9 years older than the Wisconsin average of 1984.
How Jackson County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Jackson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.8% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is 9 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson County (this page) | 218 | 37.2% | 55% | 7.8% | 1975 |
| Lafayette County | 217 | 53.5% | 38.2% | 8.3% | 1978 |
| Dodge County | 212 | 48.1% | 47.6% | 4.2% | 1983 |
| Crawford County | 211 | 56.4% | 38.4% | 5.2% | 1987 |
| Iowa County | 209 | 67.5% | 26.8% | 5.7% | 1989 |
| Walworth County | 206 | 34.5% | 61.7% | 3.9% | 1981 |
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 Jackson 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 Jackson County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WI (218 bridges here).
- Okaloosa County, FL · 218 bridges
- Yellow Medicine County, MN · 218 bridges
- Fillmore County, NE · 218 bridges
- Newberry County, SC · 218 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 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 RAND RD (DEAD
PoorOver: DOUGLAS CREEK
0.1M S JCT CTH N, Jackson, WI
Built 1930 Load: 9.7 t ADT: 15
CTH Z
PoorOver: HAY CREEK
5.3M N JCT STH 54, Jackson, WI
Built 1964 Load: 13.0 t ADT: 145
LRD LAKE RD
PoorOver: SAND CREEK
0.2M E JCT STH 108, Jackson, WI
Built 1913 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 42
CTH C
PoorOver: FRENCH CREEK
0.2M W JCT CTH X, Jackson, WI
Built 1927 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 520
CTH G
PoorOver: CURRAN CREEK
0.9M N JCT STH 95, Jackson, WI
Built 1935 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 119
LRD FEES RD
PoorOver: BR W FK HALLS CREEK
3.3M W JCT CTH F, Jackson, WI
Built 1935 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 98
LRD 3RD ST
PoorOver: TOWN CREEK
0.3M N JCT STH 54, Jackson, WI
Built 1961 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 830
LRD CAIN ROAD (DEA
PoorOver: N BR TREMPEALEAU RIVER
0.8M N JCT STH 95, Jackson, WI
Built 1941 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 11
CTH G
PoorOver: CURRAN CREEK
1.9M N JCT STH 95, Jackson, WI
Built 1936 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 121
STH 54
PoorOver: MILL CREEK
0.7M E JCT CTH V TO N, Jackson, WI
Built 1959 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 640
LRD NICHOLS RD
PoorOver: TROUT RUN CREEK
0.2M S JCT STH 54, Jackson, WI
Built 1923 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 102
CTH O
PoorOver: CLEAR CREEK
3.1M E JCT CTH S, Jackson, WI
Built 1928 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 350
CTH C
PoorOver: HAWK CREEK
0.4M W JCT CTH P, Jackson, WI
Built 1965 Load: 25.9 t ADT: 1,000
CTH K
PoorOver: NSP CANAL
0.4M S JCT CTH E, Jackson, WI
Built 1973 Load: 25.9 t ADT: 1,100
LRD SECHLERVILLE R
PoorOver: TREMPEALEAU RIVER
0.3M S JCT STH 95, Jackson, WI
Built 1979 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 135
STH 54
PoorOver: WILSON CREEK
0.2M E JCT CTH V TO N, Jackson, WI
Built 1936 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 640
IH 94 WB
PoorOver: UNION PACIFIC RR
10.0M W JCT CTH O TO S, Jackson, WI
Built 1968 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 12,200
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.