Total bridges
217
Public highway bridges in Lafayette County
County profile · official public datasets
Lafayette County, WI
217 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.5% rated Good, 38.2% Fair, 8.3% Poor.
- 217
- Public bridges
- 53.5%
- Good condition
- 8.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lafayette 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.
- 49th
- of 72 on Poor share
- 8.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 217
- public highway bridges
- 1978
- 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.
Lafayette County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lafayette County ranks #49 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.3%). Lafayette County, Wisconsin contains 217 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.5% are rated “Good,” 38.2% “Fair,” and 8.3% “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
53.5%
116 of 217 rated 7-9
Fair condition
38.2%
83 of 217 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8.3%
18 of 217 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#49 of 72
Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 217 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 53.5% (116)
Fair 38.2% (83)
Poor 8.3% (18)
Lafayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,324 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 296 crossings a day against 793 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 217 of 217 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
41% of Lafayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
89 of the 217 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 53.5% 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 41.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
STH 11 over BR SHULLSBURG BRANCH, built 1947, carries 2,200 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 18-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 5,324 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lafayette County's bridges were built
217 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
16 bridges
- 1940s 13
1940–1949
13 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
20 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
24 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
20 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
31 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
36 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
33 bridges
- 2010s 14
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1978, 6 years older than the Wisconsin average of 1984.
How Lafayette County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Lafayette County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.3% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 5 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson County | 218 | 37.2% | 55% | 7.8% | 1975 |
| Lafayette County (this page) | 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WI (217 bridges here).
- Sullivan County, IN · 217 bridges
- Harrison County, IA · 217 bridges
- Marion County, IA · 217 bridges
- Ringgold County, IA · 217 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1978 here).
- Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
- Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
- Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
- Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (217)
CTH DD
PoorOver: SPAFFORD CREEK
1.8M W JCT STH 176, Lafayette, WI
Built 1959 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 94
LRD CARR FACTORY R
PoorOver: BR GALENA RIVER
1.1M N JCT STH 11, Lafayette, WI
Built 1950 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 88
LRD W PUDDLE DOCK
PoorOver: DOUGHERTY CREEK
0.7M N JCT STH 81, Lafayette, WI
Built 1938 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 88
LRD JERICHO RD
PoorOver: JONES BRANCH
2.0M E JCT CTH G, Lafayette, WI
Built 1930 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 82
LRD KINGSLEY RD
PoorOver: WOLF CREEK
1.5M S JCT STH 11, Lafayette, WI
Built 1930 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 88
LRD E BRENNAN LANE
PoorOver: BRENNAN CREEK
0.2M E JCT STH 78, Lafayette, WI
Built 1930 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 5
CTH F
PoorOver: STEINER BRANCH
2.0M N JCT CTH G TO E, Lafayette, WI
Built 1936 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 505
CTH F
PoorOver: YELLOWSTONE RIVER
2.3M N JCT CTH G TO E, Lafayette, WI
Built 1936 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 505
CTH S
PoorOver: CANON CREEK
0.3M W JCT CTH D, Lafayette, WI
Built 1961 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 140
CTH M
PoorOver: BR E BR PECATONICA RIVER
2.5M S JCT CTH Y, Lafayette, WI
Built 1948 Load: 25.9 t ADT: 380
LRD TROTTER RD
PoorOver: TROTTER BRANCH
0.3M N JCT CTH Y, Lafayette, WI
Built 1930 Load: 25.9 t ADT: 47
CTH I
PoorOver: ELLIS BRANCH
0.8M N JCT CTH W, Lafayette, WI
Built 1930 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 293
CTH E
PoorOver: BR AMES BRANCH
2.1M W JCT CTH K, Lafayette, WI
Built 1966 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 282
CTH O
PoorOver: MINERAL POINT BRANCH
2.0M N JCT CTH C, Lafayette, WI
Built 1970 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 199
LRD CISSERVILLE RD
PoorOver: E BR PECATONICA RIVER
0.1M W JCT CTH M, Lafayette, WI
Built 1961 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 105
LRD PALFREY RD
PoorOver: SHULLSBURG BRANCH
0.8M N JCT STH 11, Lafayette, WI
Built 1929 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 47
STH 11
PoorOver: BR SHULLSBURG BRANCH
1.9M E JCT CTH I TO S, Lafayette, WI
Built 1947 Load: 40.5 t ADT: 2,200
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.