Total bridges
410
Public highway bridges in Benton County
County profile · official public datasets
Benton County, AR
410 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 49% rated Good, 47.1% Fair, 3.9% Poor.
- 410
- Public bridges
- 49%
- Good condition
- 3.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Benton County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 43%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 410
- public highway bridges
- 1992
- 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.
Benton County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Benton County ranks #32 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Benton County, Arkansas contains 410 public highway bridges. Roughly 49% are rated “Good,” 47.1% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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
49%
201 of 410 rated 7-9
Fair condition
47.1%
193 of 410 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.9%
16 of 410 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#32 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 410 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 49% (201)
Fair 47.1% (193)
Poor 3.9% (16)
Benton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 52,614 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,288 crossings a day against 8,644 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 410 of 410 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
18.5% of Benton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
76 of the 410 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 49% 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 22.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 340 Benton 1 over LITTLE SUGAR CREEK, built 1967, carries 12,000 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 52,614 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Benton County's bridges were built
410 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 11
1930–1939
11 bridges
- 1940s 10
1940–1949
10 bridges
- 1950s 17
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s 22
1960–1969
22 bridges
- 1970s 34
1970–1979
34 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
79 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
46 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
74 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
87 bridges
- 2020s 25
2020–2029
25 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 87 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1992, 12 years newer than the Arkansas average of 1980.
How Benton County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Benton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1992 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is 8 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington County | 449 | 22.3% | 70.8% | 6.9% | 1982 |
| Craighead County | 442 | 65.8% | 31% | 3.2% | 1995 |
| Benton County (this page) | 410 | 49% | 47.1% | 3.9% | 1992 |
| Jefferson County | 336 | 68.8% | 26.2% | 5.1% | 1987 |
| Sebastian County | 331 | 34.4% | 59.8% | 5.7% | 1979 |
| White County | 322 | 44.1% | 50.6% | 5.3% | 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 Benton 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 Benton County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (410 bridges here).
- Jefferson County, MO · 411 bridges
- Pittsburg County, OK · 411 bridges
- Union County, NJ · 409 bridges
- Pottawatomie County, OK · 408 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1992 here).
- Johnson County, KS · avg 1992 · 781 bridges
- Wake County, NC · avg 1992 · 760 bridges
- Nodaway County, MO · avg 1992 · 396 bridges
- Cameron County, TX · avg 1992 · 355 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (201)
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.