Total bridges
893
Public highway bridges in Milwaukee County
County profile · official public datasets
Milwaukee County, WI
893 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.2% rated Good, 51.7% Fair, 5% Poor.
- 893
- Public bridges
- 43.2%
- Good condition
- 5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Milwaukee County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.
- Top 36%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 5%
- Poor-condition share
- 893
- public highway bridges
- 1982
- 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.
Milwaukee County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Milwaukee County ranks #26 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Milwaukee County, Wisconsin contains 893 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.2% are rated “Good,” 51.7% “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.
Good condition
43.2%
386 of 893 rated 7-9
Fair condition
51.7%
462 of 893 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5%
45 of 893 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#26 of 72
Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 893 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.2% (386)
Fair 51.7% (462)
Poor 5% (45)
Milwaukee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 619,194 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 13,760 crossings a day against 20,479 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 893 of 893 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
46.5% of Milwaukee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
415 of the 893 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 43.2% 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 12.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
IH 94 WB-E-W FREEW over LRD MITCHELL BLVD, built 1959, carries 79,000 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 45-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 619,194 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Milwaukee County's bridges were built
893 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s 29
1920–1929
29 bridges
- 1930s 26
1930–1939
26 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 66
1950–1959
66 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
229 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
111 bridges
- 1980s 56
1980–1989
56 bridges
- 1990s 75
1990–1999
75 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
137 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
136 bridges
- 2020s 22
2020–2029
22 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 229 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Wisconsin average (1984).
How Milwaukee County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Milwaukee 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 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee County (this page) | 893 | 43.2% | 51.7% | 5% | 1982 |
| Dane County | 590 | 51.2% | 42.4% | 6.4% | 1987 |
| Marathon County | 530 | 46.4% | 43.4% | 10.2% | 1982 |
| Brown County | 466 | 51.3% | 44.8% | 3.9% | 1990 |
| Grant County | 383 | 66.1% | 29.5% | 4.4% | 1984 |
| Monroe County | 374 | 50.5% | 46% | 3.5% | 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 Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WI (893 bridges here).
- Orange County, FL · 885 bridges
- Erie County, NY · 906 bridges
- St. Louis County, MO · 912 bridges
- Cuyahoga County, OH · 871 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1982 here).
- Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
- Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
- Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges
- Broward County, FL · avg 1982 · 686 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (462)
IH 794-LAKE FREEWA
FairOver: DOCK RR
2.4 MI E JCT IH 94, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1974 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 25,200
CTH BB &RAWSON AVE
FairOver: OAK CREEK
0.6M W JCT STH 32, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1986 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 8,700
STH 794 NB
FairOver: LRD CARFERRY DRIVE
0.5 M N JCT STH 32, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1998 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 21,250
LRD W JUNEAU AVE
FairOver: MILWAUKEE RIVER
0.7M W JCT STH 32, Milwaukee, WI
Built 2012 Load: 52.5 t ADT: 5,797
LRD S 13TH ST
FairOver: KINNICKINNIC RIVER
1.7M S JCT STH 59, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1979 Load: 53.5 t ADT: 9,800
LRD S 9TH PLACE
FairOver: KINNICKINNIC RIVER
1.7M S JCT STH 59, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1979 Load: 55.1 t ADT: 1,100
LRD S 13TH ST
FairOver: UNION PACIFIC RR
1.9M S JCT STH 59, Milwaukee, WI
Built 2000 Load: 56.7 t ADT: 9,300
LRD S BARNEKOW RD
FairOver: DNR-HANK AARON TRAIL
0.1M E JCT STH 100, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1989 Load: 58.3 t ADT: 115
STH 175-STADIUM FR
FairOver: LRD N STADIUM ACCESS RD
0.4M N JCT IH 94 TO E, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1960 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 72,800
USH 18-STH 100
FairOver: CNW RR
6.0M E JCT CTH Y, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1973 Load: 69.7 t ADT: 43,400
LRD W COLD SPRING
FairOver: WILDCAT CREEK
0.1M W JCT STH "100", Milwaukee, WI
Built 1991 Load: 81.0 t ADT: 2,100
LRD SERVICE ROAD
FairOver: STH 38-HOWELL AVE
0.3M S JCT W GRANGE AVE, Milwaukee, WI
Built 1980 Load: 98.8 t ADT: 234
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.