County profile · official public datasets

Clark County, AR

202 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.1% rated Good, 54% Fair, 3% Poor.

202
Public bridges: 43.1%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Clark County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 25%
lowest Poor share in state: 3%
Poor-condition share: 202
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Clark County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clark County ranks #19 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Clark County, Arkansas contains 202 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.1% are rated “Good,” 54% “Fair,” and 3% “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

202

Public highway bridges in Clark County

Good condition

43.1%

87 of 202 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54%

109 of 202 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6 of 202 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#19 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 202 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.1% (87)

Fair

54% (109)

Poor

3% (6)

Clark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,951 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 825 crossings a day against 4,768 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 202 of 202 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55.4% of Clark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

112 of the 202 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 43.1% 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 64.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 67 S-5 LM 11.07 over BIG DECEIPER CREEK, built 1931, carries 3,200 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,951 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

9
1930s

32
1940s

6
1950s

12
1960s

44
1970s

17
1980s

10
1990s

19
2000s

22
2010s

25
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 6 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Clark County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Clark County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
St. Francis County	202	34.7%	58.9%	6.4%	1974
Clark County (this page)	202	43.1%	54%	3%	1974
Clay County	200	43.5%	47%	9.5%	1987
Montgomery County	199	40.2%	57.8%	2%	1975
Scott County	198	26.8%	66.7%	6.6%	1971
Poinsett County	194	41.8%	42.3%	16%	1982

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (202 bridges here).

Elmore County, AL · 202 bridges
Floyd County, GA · 202 bridges
Union County, MS · 202 bridges
Hudson County, NJ · 202 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 202 Good 87 Fair 109 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (109)

Sort:

Clark County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Clark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,951 vehicle crossings a day

55.4% of Clark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 64.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Clark 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 (109)

Clark CR 8 Z-G

Clark CR 17 Z-B

Clark CR 403 Z-D

Clark CR 28 Z-F

Clark Cr 8 Zone G

Clark CORD 44 Z-F

Clark CR 50 Z-D

Clark CR 55 Z-E

CR 36/ Red Springs

Clark CR 477 Z-G

Clark CR 6 Z-H

Clark CR 1 Z-E

Clark CR 50 Z-D

Clark CR 11 Z-F

Clark CR 58 Z-I

Clark CR 58 Z-I

Clark CR 11 Z-F

Clark CR 24 Z- I

Clark CR 222 Z-E

SH 128 S-4 LM 5.43

Clark CR 477 Z-G

Clark CR 8 Z-G

US 67 S-5 LM 14.83

Clark CR 12 Z-H

Clark CR 55 Z-E

Clark CR 76 Z-G

Clark CR 10 Z-G

Clark CR 246 Z-E

Clark CR 36 Z-A

SH 53 S-0 LM11.59

US 67 S-6 LM 7.11

Clark CR 477-Z-G

Clark CR 38 Z-A

Clark CR 14 Z-F

Clark CR 38 Z-A

S. FRONT ST.

Sh53 Sec0 Lm15.08

US 67 S-6 LM 4.49

SH 7 S-6 LM 6.90

SH 7 S-6 LM 8.66

CR 32 Z-D LM 1.15

Clark CR 9 Z-B

SH 7 S-6 LM 6.53

SH 51 S-0 LM 4.36

SH 51 S-2 LM 2.90

Clark S-5 LM 24.05

SH 51 S-1 LM 18.76

Clark CR 36 Z-A

Clark CR 38 Z-A

Clark CR 20 Z-E

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