Every day, tens of thousands of drivers cross the 735 bridges in Champaign County — and thousands cross the 53 bridges with poor structural evaluation scores.
Most of the county’s bridges are rated good or fair. However, a review of Illinois bridge inspection data reveals 7% of bridges are rated poor — And many of those aged and deteriorating bridges have gone years without repair or reconstruction.
Among the bridges with poor ratings is one on Country Club road near Urbana, one running over a stream three miles west of Philo, the First Street Bridge in Fisher and the Covered Bridge over the Sangamon River northeast of Mahomet.
The data comes from the Illinois Structure Information Management System, a database that includes bridge inspection reports and condition ratings for every bridge in the state. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) maintains the system and updates it regularly with information submitted by local, county and state inspectors.
The department’s database shows 53 bridges in Champaign County have received structural evaluation scores of four or below out of nine — meaning poor condition — as of May 8, 2026. Four of those bridges carry more than 300 vehicles a day, with one carrying more than 4,200 vehicles.
Champaign County Engineer Jeff Blue said residents should understand a low score does not mean a bridge is about to collapse.
“Most bridges built in this day and age aren’t fracture critical,” Blue said. “You have a lot of redundancy. If something fails, something else is going to make sure it doesn’t fall down.”
Every bridge on a public road in the U.S. is required to be inspected at least once every two years under Title 23 Section CFR 650.311 of the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inspection Standards.
In Illinois, those inspections are carried out by state and local engineers who physically examine three key components:
- The deck, which is the surface drivers travel on
- The superstructure, which includes the beams and supports underneath the deck
- The substructure, which refers to the piers and foundations supporting the entire structure
Federal standards say each component receives a score on a scale of one to nine. Scores of seven or above are considered good and five or six are considered fair. A rating of four or below signals poor condition, meaning the component is showing serious deterioration.
From those individual scores, inspectors determine an overall structural evaluation for the bridge.
Beyond the structural evaluation, each bridge also receives a sufficiency rating, a separate number between zero and 100 that reflects the bridge’s overall capacity to remain in service. According to the IDOT Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual, the rating is calculated from inspection and inventory data and accounts for four factors:
- Structural adequacy and safety
- Serviceability and design
- Impact on surrounding road network
- Special considerations flagged during inspection
Blue said his office draws a line at a rating of 69.9. Bridges that fall at or below that threshold are actively monitored for potential repair or replacement.
“We take the worst ones, and we work with consultants to start the design process on what we’re going to do with those bridges,” Blue said.
Who is responsible for inspections
Not all 735 bridges in the county fall under the same oversight.
Under section 6-2.03 of the Bureau of Local Roads & Streets Manual, maintenance and inspection responsibilities for a bridge depends on the agency with jurisdiction over the road leading to and from it. For bridges without a public road on the structure itself, the agency with jurisdiction of the road underneath takes responsibility.
The agency with jurisdiction over the road is generally responsible for maintaining and inspecting their bridges.
However, in Champaign County, the majority of responsibility is split among only the state and county agencies. Under section 6-102 of the Illinois Highway Code, county inspectors are responsible for overseeing township and road districts in counties operating under township organization.
Blue said larger municipalities with a population of about 5,000 residents are responsible for their own bridges.
“Champaign, Urbana and Rantoul in Champaign County are the only municipalities that are responsible for their own bridges,” Blue said. “We’re responsible for everything else.”
Blue’s office inspects 523 of the county’s 735 total bridges, which his team tracks on a rolling list ranked by sufficiency rating.
Several poorly-rated county bridges stand out
Among the 53 bridges in poor condition, several carry high daily traffic loads and have drawn particular attention from inspectors.
Bridge 010-4150, a crossing on Country Club Road over a drainage ditch near Urbana, carries an estimated 4,200 vehicles per day. Its structural evaluation is a three, and both its deck and superstructure received scores of three. The bridge was built in 1979 and data shows it has never been reconstructed.
Its sufficiency rating sits at 27.7 out of 100. Bridges scoring below 50 are generally considered candidates for higher-priority repairs.
Bridge 010-4196, on TR 255 over a stream about three miles west of Philo, has a structural evaluation of two, one of the lowest scores in the county. Its deck and superstructure are both also rated at two.
The bridge was built in 1982 and carries around 300 vehicles daily, state data showed. Its sufficiency rating is 30.6.
Bridge 010-6068, known locally as the First Street Bridge in Fisher, crosses Owl Creek and sees approximately 1,250 vehicles a day. It scored a three on its structural evaluation, with its deck and superstructure also rated at three.
Built in 1970 and never reconstructed, it has a sufficiency rating of 24.7, among the lowest in the county.
Bridge 010-9900, known as the Covered Bridge, sits on TR 950 over the Sangamon River northeast of Mahomet. It carries about 400 vehicles a day and has a structural evaluation of two.
Its sufficiency rating is 20, the lowest of any county bridge listed in the state’s data.
Blue said when a bridge drops into poor condition, the state sends its own inspection team to independently assess the structure and determine whether weight or load restrictions need to be posted.
“They send us a four- or five-page letter that says ‘this is what we found,’” Blue said. “They do drawings of the bridge, show the deficiencies and then they’ll do a ranking of the strength of the bridge to see if it needs to be posted for load limits.”
Blue confirmed all bridges currently rated below a four out of nine on any structural element within the county are already in the county’s schedule for design, repair or replacement.
Once the state determines a bridge must have load limits posted, the county has roughly one month to manufacture and install the restriction limits, state records show.
“It’s mandated,” Blue said. “If they tell us it needs to be posted, we have to go out and post it.”
Inspection methodology shifted over past decade
For years, two phrases were used to describe bridge conditions: “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete.” In 2018, the Federal Highway Administration moved away from both labels in favor of the more specific rating system that utilizes the zero-to-100 sufficiency ratings.
A bridge labeled structurally deficient did not mean it was on the verge of collapse. It meant at least one of its major components had received a poor inspection score. Functionally obsolete meant the bridge’s design no longer met current standards.
However, federal regulators are now moving away from the sufficiency rating that counties have used to prioritize bridge maintenance and repair. Blue said the transition is not yet complete and he is not sure what replaces it.
“The feds are trying to go away from using sufficiency rating as the number we are using for rating these bridges,” Blue said. “I’m not sure why they are doing that because we think it is a really good way of doing it. They have not gotten there yet, but they are taking us in a different route, and I’m not quite sure where that is going to take us.”
Bridges can wait years or decades for repairs
A poor inspection score does not automatically mean a bridge will close to traffic.
Inspection ratings and decisions about closure are separate processes. A bridge can score poorly and still be deemed safe enough to remain open, provided inspectors continue monitoring it and no emergency deterioration surfaces.
When a bridge does reach the point of closure, Blue said the county carries out the physical work but the state holds all the authority.
“We are the ones that have to go out and close it, put up all the signs, monitor it,” Blue said. “But the state is actually the one who makes the determination to close the bridge.”
What the ratings do, Blue said, is create a documented record of need, one that eventually enters a queue for repair funding.
That queue can be a long wait.
Bridge repairs in Illinois, particularly on county and local roads, typically require money from multiple sources: local budgets, state programs and federal transportation funding. Projects must be planned, designed and approved before construction can begin, which can be a costly, time-consuming process.
A 2013 investigation by CU-CitizenAccess found that bridges in Champaign County had waited ten or more years for repair funding after being flagged as deficient. A bridge on Windsor Road in Champaign waited a full decade before receiving approved funding. During that time, it continued carrying thousands of vehicles per day.
The performance in the state has not changed significantly since then.
Illinois received a C- grade on the American Society of Civil Engineers 2022 Infrastructure Report Card, citing aging infrastructure and persistent underfunding as the primary concerns.
The professional engineering organization evaluates national infrastructure conditions through periodic report cards based on state and federal data and discussion with industry experts. The grades are based on eight evaluations: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience and innovation.
Recent state, federal efforts attempting to fund repairs
Federal and state officials have attempted to address the growing backlog in recent years. The 2021 Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act created a dedicated federal Bridge Formula Program, which distributes funding based on the relative costs of repair, rehabilitation or replacement for bridges in poor condition.
Illinois lawmakers also expanded the state’s Township Bridge Program from $15 million to $60 million annually. Blue said the increase was necessary to keep pace with inflationary factors.
The state has also implemented a “bridge bundling” strategy. According to an IDOT feasibility analysis, the program groups multiple bridge projects into larger contracts intended to reduce costs, speed up construction and to stimulate economic activity.
Under the approach, the state department would oversee the design and procurement process for bundled bridges rather than leaving projects entirely to local agencies.
Blue said the approach could help move projects forward faster, but worries local agencies may lose influence over bridge designs and construction decisions that are usually handled at the county level.
“Anytime you get another layer of government involved in anything, it gets a little harder to get the end product that you want,” Blue said. “As the county, we know what works for us, what types of bridges work for us and what our contractors are good at building. I’m not sure the end product is going to be what we would have chosen had we been given the choice.”
Blue said counties spend years inspecting and monitoring local bridges before replacement projects begin, giving engineers a detailed understanding of what designs best fit local roads, traffic patterns and construction needs.
Most of Champaign County’s bridges remain safe to drive across, but behind every inspection report is a growing backlog of repairs and funding decisions that can take years to resolve.