County profile · official public datasets

Bradley County, AR

105 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.1% rated Good, 38.1% Fair, 3.8% Poor.

105
Public bridges: 58.1%
Good condition: 3.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Bradley 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 40%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.8%
Poor-condition share: 105
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Bradley County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bradley County ranks #30 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.8%). Bradley County, Arkansas contains 105 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.1% are rated “Good,” 38.1% “Fair,” and 3.8% “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.

Total bridges

105

Public highway bridges in Bradley County

Good condition

58.1%

61 of 105 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.1%

40 of 105 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.8%

4 of 105 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#30 of 75

Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 105 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

58.1% (61)

Fair

38.1% (40)

Poor

3.8% (4)

Bradley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 198 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 50 crossings a day against 695 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 105 of 105 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

21.9% of Bradley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

23 of the 105 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 58.1% 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 82.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 22 Rice Rd. over Crane Creek, built 2022, carries 164 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 198 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

3
1940s

1
1950s

5
1960s

9
1970s

11
1980s

16
1990s

23
2000s

19
2010s

13
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1988, 8 years newer than the Arkansas average of 1980.

How Bradley County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Bradley County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 9 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bradley County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Ashley County	106	63.2%	35.8%	0.9%	1981
Fulton County	105	39%	48.6%	12.4%	1969
Izard County	105	34.3%	47.6%	18.1%	1981
Bradley County (this page)	105	58.1%	38.1%	3.8%	1988
Dallas County	103	56.3%	38.8%	4.9%	1980
Phillips County	101	37.6%	40.6%	21.8%	1983

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 Bradley 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 Bradley County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (105 bridges here).

Calaveras County, CA · 105 bridges
Flagler County, FL · 105 bridges
Sherman County, KS · 105 bridges
Hillsdale County, MI · 105 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Grant County, OK · avg 1988 · 476 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 105 Good 61 Fair 40 Poor 4

Fair-condition bridges (40)

Sort:

Bradley County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bradley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 198 vehicle crossings a day

21.9% of Bradley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 82.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bradley County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (40)

BRADLEY CR 64 Z-A

Bradley CR 6 Z-E

Bradley CR65 Z-F

Bradley CR 54 Z-A

SH 275 S-3 LM3.56

Bradley CR 65 Z-F

US 63 S-17 LM17.43

SH 160 S-9

Old Monticello Rd.

Bradley CR 52 Z-B

Bradley CR 11 Z-D

Bradley CR 1 Z-E

Bradley CR 134 Z-F

Bradley CR 53 Z-A

SH 160 S-9 LM6.87

SH 8-12 LM 16.43

Bradley CR360 Z -B

SH 160 / S-9

US 278 S-12LM11.05

SH 160 S-8 LM0.36

US 63 S-16 LM-0.89

US 278 S-12 LM9.85

US 278 S-12 LM 8.2

US 278 S-12 LM 5.7

US 278 S-12LM12.01

SH 172 S-2 LM 1.18

Bradley CR 54 Z-A

SH 8 S-11 LM 3.78

SH 160 S-9

SH 172 S-2 LM 0.58

SH 172 S-2 LM 0.71

Bradley CR 2 Z-F

Bradley CR 32 Z-E

US 63 S-17 LM13.61

US 63 S-17 LM13.26

US 278 S-12 LM15.3

US 63 S16 LM 0.26

U.S.278 S-13 LM4.5

SH 189 S-2 LM 0.37

SH 189 S-2 LM 0.49

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