County profile · official public datasets

Desha County, AR

83 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55.4% rated Good, 39.8% Fair, 4.8% Poor.

83
Public bridges: 55.4%
Good condition: 4.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Desha County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 49%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.8%
Poor-condition share: 83
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Desha County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Desha County ranks #37 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.8%). Desha County, Arkansas contains 83 public highway bridges. Roughly 55.4% are rated “Good,” 39.8% “Fair,” and 4.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Desha County

Good condition

55.4%

46 of 83 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.8%

33 of 83 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.8%

4 of 83 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#37 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 83 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

55.4% (46)

Fair

39.8% (33)

Poor

4.8% (4)

Desha County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,200 vehicle crossings a day

That is 7.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,300 crossings a day against 2,349 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 83 of 83 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.1% of Desha County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

30 of the 83 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 55.4% 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 71.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SH 278-16 LM 4.38 over Union Pacific R/R, built 1969, carries 6,600 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 9,200 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1950s

7
1960s

17
1970s

9
1980s

4
1990s

17
2000s

22
2010s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Arkansas average (1980).

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Desha County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.8% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Desha County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chicot County	88	40.9%	50%	9.1%	1973
Monroe County	85	55.3%	37.6%	7.1%	1975
Little River County	83	54.2%	38.6%	7.2%	1979
Desha County (this page)	83	55.4%	39.8%	4.8%	1984
Cleveland County	79	48.1%	46.8%	5.1%	1970
Woodruff County	79	40.5%	51.9%	7.6%	1976

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (83 bridges here).

Wayne County, GA · 83 bridges
Boundary County, ID · 83 bridges
Waseca County, MN · 83 bridges
Northampton County, NC · 83 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges

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

All 83 Good 46 Fair 33 Poor 4

All bridges (83)

Sort:

Desha County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Desha County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,200 vehicle crossings a day

36.1% of Desha County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 71.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Desha 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

All bridges (83)

CR 10/McArthur Rd.

CR 12 / Newton Cha

CrawfordCrossng-CR

CR 20/Pickens Rd

CR 66/South Curve

CR 10/McArthur Rd

CR 31/ Kirtley Rd

CR55/ Cooks Camp

SH 278-16 LM 2.62

US 65-19 LM 6.45

US 165-04 LM 5.41

US 165-04 LM 1.26

US 165-04 LM 1.86

SH 1-01 LM 7.01

SH 1-01 LM 7.91

SH 1-01 LM 9.70

SH 1-01 LM 1.70

SH 1-01 LM 3.99

SH 138-04 LM 0.30

SH 212-06 LM 1.35

CR 49/Red Fork Rd

Brookhaven St-CS

US65-19 LM 9.46 SB

US 65-17 SB 4.7

US 65-17 LM 1.55SB

US65-19 LM 9.47 NB

US 65-17 NB 9.62

US 65-17 LM 1.55NB

SH 54-02 LM 1.49

CR 42/Gould Rd

US 278-16 LM 0.38

SH 278-16 LM 4.38

Sh-44Sec-2/L-6.67

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