Total bridges
442
Public highway bridges in Craighead County
County profile · official public datasets
Craighead County, AR
442 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 65.8% rated Good, 31% Fair, 3.2% Poor.
- 442
- Public bridges
- 65.8%
- Good condition
- 3.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Craighead 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 32%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 442
- public highway bridges
- 1995
- 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.
Craighead County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Craighead County ranks #24 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.2%). Craighead County, Arkansas contains 442 public highway bridges. Roughly 65.8% are rated “Good,” 31% “Fair,” and 3.2% “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
65.8%
291 of 442 rated 7-9
Fair condition
31%
137 of 442 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.2%
14 of 442 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#24 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 442 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 65.8% (291)
Fair 31% (137)
Poor 3.2% (14)
Craighead County's Poor-condition bridges carry 41,106 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,936 crossings a day against 3,429 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 442 of 442 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
12% of Craighead County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
53 of the 442 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 65.8% 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 42.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 1-17- LM 6.66 over HIGGINBOTTOM CREEK, built 1973, carries 17,518 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 41,106 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Craighead County's bridges were built
442 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 10
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s 8
1950–1959
8 bridges
- 1960s 17
1960–1969
17 bridges
- 1970s 47
1970–1979
47 bridges
- 1980s 46
1980–1989
46 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
124 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
94 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
67 bridges
- 2020s 26
2020–2029
26 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 124 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1995, 15 years newer than the Arkansas average of 1980.
How Craighead County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Craighead County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1995 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is 11 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 (this page) | 442 | 65.8% | 31% | 3.2% | 1995 |
| Benton County | 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 Craighead 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 Craighead County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (442 bridges here).
- Erie County, PA · 442 bridges
- Loudoun County, VA · 442 bridges
- Imperial County, CA · 444 bridges
- Licking County, OH · 439 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1995 here).
- Williamson County, TX · avg 1995 · 1,170 bridges
- Utah County, UT · avg 1995 · 271 bridges
- DeSoto County, MS · avg 1995 · 266 bridges
- Scotland County, MO · avg 1995 · 201 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (14)
CR20 -G 911- 108
PoorOver: Union Pacific Railroad
0.91 M E Jct. SH 349, Craighead, AR
Built 1957 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 174
SH 230-07- LM 0.51
PoorOver: CACHE RIVER
4.5 MI E JCT SH 91, Craighead, AR
Built 1968 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 740
CR 948 - LM 5.56
PoorOver: BIG BAY DITCH
1.5 MI W JCT SH 135 & 230, Craighead, AR
Built 1968 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 650
SH 463 RT SIDE PVT
PoorOver: RT HWY RD DITCH
0.10 S JCT 463&INGLES RD, Craighead, AR
Built 1965 Load: 2.7 t ADT: 4,200
SH 18-03- LM 11.08
PoorOver: DITCH
0.8 MI SO OF SH 91, Craighead, AR
Built 1960 Load: 4.5 t ADT: 560
CR948 - LM 6.28
PoorOver: DITCH
1.0 MI W JCT SH 230 & 135, Craighead, AR
Built 1968 Load: 5.4 t ADT: 650
SH 91-02- LM 2.22
PoorOver: CACHE RIVER
2.29 MI SE LAWRENCE CO, Craighead, AR
Built 1959 Load: 7.3 t ADT: 410
SH 158-05- LM 2.35
PoorOver: LITTLE BAY DITCH
2.3 W OF SH 463, Craighead, AR
Built 1980 Load: 10.9 t ADT: 1,100
SH 1-17- LM 6.66
PoorOver: HIGGINBOTTOM CREEK
0.7 MI S OF US 63, Craighead, AR
Built 1973 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 17,518
CR948 - LM 1.09
PoorOver: DITCH
1.11 MI E SH 49, Craighead, AR
Built 1977 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 650
CR 837 - A
PoorOver: COCKLE BURR SLOUGH
.5 MI N & 1 M W MANGRUM, Craighead, AR
Built 1976 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 40
Pvt Ent-Rt-SH163
PoorOver: HWY RD DITCH
0.30 MI SO JCT SH 1B, Craighead, AR
Built 1989 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 3,866
CR 876 - A
PoorOver: Ditch Number 5
1.5 M W & 2 M S Caraway, Craighead, AR
Built 1984 Load: 20.9 t ADT: 48
I-555
PoorOver: SLSW RR; Mahon St.
4.14 MI NW OF SH 18, Craighead, AR
Built 1978 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 10,500
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.