County profile · official public datasets

Cross County, AR

129 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38% rated Good, 50.4% Fair, 11.6% Poor.

129
Public bridges: 38%
Good condition: 11.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cross County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

67th
of 75 on Poor share: 11.6%
Poor-condition share: 129
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Cross County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cross County ranks #67 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11.6%). Cross County, Arkansas contains 129 public highway bridges. Roughly 38% are rated “Good,” 50.4% “Fair,” and 11.6% “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

129

Public highway bridges in Cross County

Good condition

38%

49 of 129 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50.4%

65 of 129 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11.6%

15 of 129 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#67 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 129 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38% (49)

Fair

50.4% (65)

Poor

11.6% (15)

Cross County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,088 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 873 crossings a day against 1,639 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 129 of 129 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.7% of Cross County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

68 of the 129 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 38% 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 33.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Sh-1/Sec-14/L10.02 over Wolfe Creek, built 1950, carries 4,400 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 13,088 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

7
1950s

15
1960s

28
1970s

27
1980s

9
1990s

10
2000s

15
2010s

10
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Arkansas average (1980).

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Cross County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11.6% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cross County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jackson County	136	49.3%	42.6%	8.1%	1977
Nevada County	133	38.3%	57.1%	4.5%	1974
Columbia County	131	54.2%	43.5%	2.3%	1983
Cross County (this page)	129	38%	50.4%	11.6%	1979
Lawrence County	126	55.6%	35.7%	8.7%	1979
Conway County	122	53.3%	46.7%	0%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (129 bridges here).

Clay County, AL · 129 bridges
Lake County, CA · 129 bridges
Lincoln County, CO · 129 bridges
Martin County, FL · 129 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 129 Good 49 Fair 65 Poor 15

Fair-condition bridges (65)

Sort:

Cross County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cross County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,088 vehicle crossings a day

52.7% of Cross County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cross 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 (65)

Cr-619/Z-G/L-0.25

North C St/Wynne

Cr-521/Z-G/L-7.0

Sh-1B/Sec14b/L0.21

Cr-708/Z-H/L-0.36

Us-64/Sec-16/L6.41

Cr-739/Z-H/L-1.54

Sh-42/Sec-3/L-9.48

Us-64/Sec-16/L3.81

Sh-364/Sec-1/L9.49

Cr-1001/Z-G/L-0.92

Cr-647/Z-G/L-0.28

Cr-372/Z-D/L-3.88

Sh-284/Sec-1/L2.53

Sh-163/Sec-2/L9.19

Sh-1/Sec-14/L-2.03

Sh-42/Sec-2/L-3.13

Us-49/Sec-6/L11.96

Sh-42/Sec-2/L-4.53

Sh-42/Sec-2/L15.70

Sh-193/Sec-2/L9.27

Cr-231/Z-E/L-5.44

Sh-1/Sec-13/L-4.63

Sh-364/Sc-1/L5.12

Sh-42/Sec-2/L-7.95

Cr-367/Z-D/L-0.65

Sh-600/Sec22/L1.06

Sh-364/Sec-1/L9.14

Sh-284/Sec-1/L9.16

Sh-284/Sec-1/L9.27

Sh-284/Sec-1/L5.64

Cr-739/Z-H/L-4.36

Us-64/Sec-15/L-4.2

Sh-42/Sec-2/L10.63

Sh-42/Sec-2/L-5.09

Sh-364/Sec-1/L2.29

Sh-306/Sec-5/L-1.0

Sh-284/Sec1/L12.07

Sh42/Sec-3/ L10.83

Cr-814/Z-A/L-7.11

Cr-724/Z-H/L-2.52

Sh-42/Sec-3/L-7.86

Sh-184/Sec-1/L0.97

Cr-637/Z-G/L-0.68

Sh-1/Sec-14/L-8.29

Us-64/Sec-15/L6.51

Us-64/Sec-15/L6.65

Us-64/Sec-15/L-7.4

Us-64/Sec-15/L7.61

Us-64/Sec15/L11.30

Related