Total bridges
309
Public highway bridges in Mississippi County
County profile · official public datasets
Mississippi County, AR
309 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.3% rated Good, 34.3% Fair, 9.4% Poor.
- 309
- Public bridges
- 56.3%
- Good condition
- 9.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Mississippi County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 64th
- of 75 on Poor share
- 9.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 309
- public highway bridges
- 1982
- 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.
Mississippi County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Mississippi County ranks #64 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.4%). Mississippi County, Arkansas contains 309 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.3% are rated “Good,” 34.3% “Fair,” and 9.4% “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
56.3%
174 of 309 rated 7-9
Fair condition
34.3%
106 of 309 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9.4%
29 of 309 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#64 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 309 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 56.3% (174)
Fair 34.3% (106)
Poor 9.4% (29)
Mississippi County's Poor-condition bridges carry 34,583 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,193 crossings a day against 1,681 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 309 of 309 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
37.9% of Mississippi County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
117 of the 309 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 56.3% 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 12.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 140-02-LM 12.11 over DITCH 40, built 1960, carries 4,185 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 29-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 34,583 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Mississippi County's bridges were built
309 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
31 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
74 bridges
- 1970s 26
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
39 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
39 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
57 bridges
- 2010s 24
2010–2019
24 bridges
- 2020s 9
2020–2029
9 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 74 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Arkansas average (1980).
How Mississippi County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Mississippi County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.4% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Garland County | 319 | 43.3% | 55.8% | 0.9% | 1977 |
| Mississippi County (this page) | 309 | 56.3% | 34.3% | 9.4% | 1982 |
| Union County | 289 | 73% | 26% | 1% | 1992 |
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 Mississippi 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 Mississippi County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (309 bridges here).
- Howard County, MD · 309 bridges
- Athens County, OH · 309 bridges
- Washington County, OH · 309 bridges
- Franklin County, IL · 310 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1982 here).
- Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
- Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
- Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
- Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (106)
I-55NB-12-LM 66.75
FairOver: BURLINGTON SH 239S
0.5 MI SO SH 18, Mississippi, AR
Built 1960 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 11,500
I-55NB-12-LM 48.29
FairOver: SH 140-SEC 2
JCT OF I40 & I55, Mississippi, AR
Built 1962 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 9,500
I 55-12NB-LM 43.86
FairOver: SH 181-SEC 1
2.35 MI N JCT SH 14, Mississippi, AR
Built 1961 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 12,500
I-55- 12- LM 31.40
FairOver: DITCH NO 4
3.0 MI N CRITTENDEN CO L, Mississippi, AR
Built 1960 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 20,074
I -55 SEC 12-69.84
FairOver: DITCH NO 30
2.5 MI N BLYTHEVILLE, Mississippi, AR
Built 1963 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 19,000
SH 181-00- LM 2.19
FairOver: I 55-SEC 12
2 MI E OF BASSETT, Mississippi, AR
Built 1960 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 1,200
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.