County profile · official public datasets

Lafayette County, AR

72 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 62.5% rated Good, 34.7% Fair, 2.8% Poor.

72
Public bridges
62.5%
Good condition
2.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 24%
lowest Poor share in state
2.8%
Poor-condition share
72
public highway bridges
1987
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.

Lafayette County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lafayette County ranks #18 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Lafayette County, Arkansas contains 72 public highway bridges. Roughly 62.5% are rated “Good,” 34.7% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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

72

Public highway bridges in Lafayette County

Good condition

62.5%

45 of 72 rated 7-9

Fair condition

34.7%

25 of 72 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.8%

2 of 72 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#18 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 72 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
62.5% (45)
Fair
34.7% (25)
Poor
2.8% (2)

Lafayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,375 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 688 crossings a day against 895 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 72 of 72 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.9% of Lafayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

23 of the 72 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 62.5% 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 94.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SH 160 SEC.02-9.00 over BODCAW CREEK, built 1964, carries 1,300 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,375 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Lafayette County's bridges were built

72 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 7 years newer than the Arkansas average of 1980.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Lafayette County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 15 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lafayette County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Cleveland County 79 5.1%
Woodruff County 79 7.6%
Stone County 73 12.3%
Lafayette County (this page) 72 2.8%
Marion County 65 4.6%
Newton County 65 3.1%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (72 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1987 here).

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

All 72 Good 45 Fair 25 Poor 2

All bridges (72)

C.R. 18 - E - 1.42

Good

Over: FEILD BAYOU

4.5 MI. S.W OF LEWISVILLE, Lafayette, AR

Built 2002 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 10

CO.RD. 91 -E- 3.10

Good

Over: MANIECE BAYOU

5.0 MI. WEST OF CANFIELD, Lafayette, AR

Built 2006 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 100

CR 37-B-2.11

Good

Over: DORCHEAT BAYOU RELIEF

2.1 MILES S.E. OF BUCKNER, Lafayette, AR

Built 2010 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4

CO. RD 20-3.94 -E

Good

Over: FIELD BAYOU DITCH

1.2 MILES E JCT 20 & 5, Lafayette, AR

Built 2013 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 265

SH 160 - 02 - 7.79

Good

Over: POLK CR. & LAKE ERLING

7.8 MI E BRADLEY, Lafayette, AR

Built 1983 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,300

SH 53 - 05 - 26.77

Good

Over: KEOUN CREEK

0.8 MI. N. OF LOUISIANA, Lafayette, AR

Built 1985 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,543

SH 53 - 05 - 23.46

Good

Over: WATERWAY CREEK

2 MI N JCT SH 53&160, Lafayette, AR

Built 1985 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 735

SH 53 - 05 - 20.33

Good

Over: WALKER CREEK

.5 MI S.JCT S.H 53&160(3), Lafayette, AR

Built 1985 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 735

SH 160 - 03 - 0.46

Good

Over: WALKER CREEK

.5 MI E JCT SH 53&160, Lafayette, AR

Built 1985 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,100

SH 160 - 01- 8.84

Good

Over: POSTON BAYOU

0.3 MI E GIN CITY, Lafayette, AR

Built 1998 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 931

SH 53 SEC.05 -0.74

Good

Over: LAKE JUNE

0.23 MI S JCT US 82T & 53, Lafayette, AR

Built 2000 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,700

S.H. 29 - 01-23.89

Good

Over: STEEL CREEK

.25 MI. S. OF JCT.U.S. 82, Lafayette, AR

Built 2004 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,367

US 82-02-10.60

Good

Over: Bodcau Creek

1 MI WEST OF STAMPS, Lafayette, AR

Built 2021 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,900

CO RD 13 -D- 3.94

Good

Over: KENNY CREEK

3.94 MI W JCT 13&SH 29, Lafayette, AR

Built 1980 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 120

C.R.31-C-1.70

Good

Over: BRANCH OF CLEAR CREEK

1.6 M W JCT SH 53 & CR 31, Lafayette, AR

Built 2008 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 658

SH 360 SEC.01-0.20

Good

Over: HEIRS BRANCH

0.2 MILE OF SH 29&360, Lafayette, AR

Built 2017 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 70

SH 360 SEC.01-1.10

Good

Over: BRANCH OF HEIRS BR

1.10 MILE E OF SH 29&360, Lafayette, AR

Built 2017 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 70

SH 360 SEC.01-4.85

Good

Over: CREEK

2M W OF SH 53 & 360, Lafayette, AR

Built 2009 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 70

SH 53 SEC.05-14.24

Good

Over: creek

0.8 MI S JCT SH 360 & 53, Lafayette, AR

Built 2021 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 500

SH 160 SEC.02-4.13

Good

Over: Dooley Creek

4.1 MI E Bradley, Lafayette, AR

Built 2022 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 960

C.R. 22 - B - 5.11

Poor

Over: CREEK

.10 MI E JCT SH 313, Lafayette, AR

Built 1998 Load: 9.1 t ADT: 75

SH 160 SEC.02-9.00

Poor

Over: BODCAW CREEK

1.0 MI W JCT SH 160 & 53, Lafayette, AR

Built 1964 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 1,300

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.