Total bridges
374
Public highway bridges in Monroe County
County profile · official public datasets
Monroe County, WI
374 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.5% rated Good, 46% Fair, 3.5% Poor.
- 374
- Public bridges
- 50.5%
- Good condition
- 3.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Monroe County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 17%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 374
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Monroe County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Monroe County ranks #12 of 72 Wisconsin counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.5%). Monroe County, Wisconsin contains 374 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.5% are rated “Good,” 46% “Fair,” and 3.5% “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
50.5%
189 of 374 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46%
172 of 374 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.5%
13 of 374 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#12 of 72
Among Wisconsin counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 374 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 50.5% (189)
Fair 46% (172)
Poor 3.5% (13)
Monroe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 19,681 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,514 crossings a day against 3,276 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 374 of 374 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
39% of Monroe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
146 of the 374 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 50.5% 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 66.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
IH 94 EB over RAMP IH 90EB-IH 94WB, built 1963, carries 13,150 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 13-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 19,681 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Monroe County's bridges were built
374 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 17
1920–1929
17 bridges
- 1930s 24
1930–1939
24 bridges
- 1940s 7
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
72 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
39 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
36 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
66 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
45 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
44 bridges
- 2020s 10
2020–2029
10 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 72 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 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Wisconsin average (1984).
How Monroe County compares with Wisconsin's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Wisconsin counties nearest Monroe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 71 Wisconsin counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant County | 383 | 66.1% | 29.5% | 4.4% | 1984 |
| Monroe County (this page) | 374 | 50.5% | 46% | 3.5% | 1981 |
| Waukesha County | 369 | 53.1% | 40.4% | 6.5% | 1984 |
| Chippewa County | 359 | 34.8% | 56% | 9.2% | 1985 |
| Vernon County | 333 | 44.1% | 48.3% | 7.5% | 1983 |
| Barron County | 319 | 48.6% | 45.8% | 5.6% | 1978 |
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 Monroe 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 Monroe County, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WI (374 bridges here).
- Benton County, IA · 374 bridges
- Baltimore city County, MD · 374 bridges
- Rankin County, MS · 374 bridges
- Cape Girardeau County, MO · 374 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WI (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (172)
STH 27
FairOver: SOPER CREEK
1.8M N JCT STH 71 TO W, Monroe, WI
Built 1949 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 3,300
LRD N GLENDALE AVE
FairOver: LEMONWEIR RIVER
0.7M E JCT USH 12, Monroe, WI
Built 1994 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 2,710
LRD COURT ST
FairOver: LA CROSSE RIVER
0.2M S JCT STH 16, Monroe, WI
Built 1994 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 4,558
CTH F
FairOver: LITTLE LA CROSSE RIVER
0.1M E JCT STH 27, Monroe, WI
Built 2002 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 139
CTH N
FairOver: LEMONWEIR CR
1.3M S STH 21, Monroe, WI
Built 2004 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 305
LRD FORMICA RD
FairOver: MUD CREEK
0.8M N JCT CTH E, Monroe, WI
Built 1968 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 293
CTH N
FairOver: LITTLE LEMONWIER RIVER
1.9M N JCT CTH W, Monroe, WI
Built 1982 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 250
CTH Z
FairOver: BR BILLINGS CREEK
2.0M S JCT CTH P, Monroe, WI
Built 1955 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 54
CTH XX
FairOver: BR LIT LA CROSSE RIVER
3.1M E JCT STH 27, Monroe, WI
Built 1987 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 163
CTH XX
FairOver: LITTLE LA CROSSE RIVER
5.6M E JCT STH 27, Monroe, WI
Built 1987 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 163
IH 94 WB
FairOver: LRD ASPEN AVENUE
1.5M W JCT CTH EW, Monroe, WI
Built 1968 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 11,350
CTH M
FairOver: MILL CREEK
0.4M W JCT USH 12, Monroe, WI
Built 1980 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 316
CTH F
FairOver: BR LA CROSSE RIVER
2.2M W JCT CTH U, Monroe, WI
Built 1991 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 119
CTH P - GLENDALE R
FairOver: BARABOO RIVER
0.1M E JCT CTH W, Monroe, WI
Built 1991 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 1,417
WEST N STREET
FairOver: SUUKJAK SEP CREEK
W. N St. over Squaw Creek, Monroe, WI
Built 1994 Load: 46.7 t ADT: 200
LRD DOGWOOD AVE
FairOver: BRANDY CREEK
0.2M S JCT CTH N, Monroe, WI
Built 1980 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 293
STH 16
FairOver: SILVER CREEK
0.2M E JCT CTH A (E), Monroe, WI
Built 1936 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 2,400
LRD CHERRY RD
FairOver: BR MILL CREEK
0.1M N JCT CTH G, Monroe, WI
Built 1925 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 94
IH 94 EB
FairOver: LEMONWEIR CREEK
2.3M E JCT USH 12 TO E, Monroe, WI
Built 1963 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 13,050
CTH PP
FairOver: E FK LEMONWEIR RIVER
0.5M S JCT STH 21, Monroe, WI
Built 1997 Load: 50.2 t ADT: 545
RANGE ROAD
FairOver: ALDERWOOD LAKE
MIL GRID 874842, Monroe, WI
Built 2015 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 200
WEST F STREET
FairOver: LA CROSSE RIVER
W. F St over La Crosse R., Monroe, WI
Built 1996 Load: 59.3 t ADT: 1,000
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.