Total bridges
199
Public highway bridges in Montgomery County
County profile · official public datasets
Montgomery County, AR
199 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40.2% rated Good, 57.8% Fair, 2% Poor.
- 199
- Public bridges
- 40.2%
- Good condition
- 2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Montgomery County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 16%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2%
- Poor-condition share
- 199
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Montgomery County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Montgomery County ranks #12 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Montgomery County, Arkansas contains 199 public highway bridges. Roughly 40.2% are rated “Good,” 57.8% “Fair,” and 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
40.2%
80 of 199 rated 7-9
Fair condition
57.8%
115 of 199 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2%
4 of 199 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#12 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 199 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40.2% (80)
Fair 57.8% (115)
Poor 2% (4)
Montgomery County's Poor-condition bridges carry 810 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 203 crossings a day against 862 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 199 of 199 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
48.2% of Montgomery County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
96 of the 199 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 40.2% 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 86.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
State Highway 240 over Caddo River-Montgomery, built 1966, carries 700 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 810 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Montgomery County's bridges were built
199 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
18 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
32 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
20 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
30 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
30 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
20 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
17 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
18 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1975, 5 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.
How Montgomery County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Montgomery County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clark County | 202 | 43.1% | 54% | 3% | 1974 |
| St. Francis County | 202 | 34.7% | 58.9% | 6.4% | 1974 |
| Clay County | 200 | 43.5% | 47% | 9.5% | 1987 |
| Montgomery County (this page) | 199 | 40.2% | 57.8% | 2% | 1975 |
| Scott County | 198 | 26.8% | 66.7% | 6.6% | 1971 |
| Poinsett County | 194 | 41.8% | 42.3% | 16% | 1982 |
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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (199 bridges here).
- Warren County, IL · 199 bridges
- Dallas County, IA · 199 bridges
- Leake County, MS · 199 bridges
- Neshoba County, MS · 199 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (4)
FDR D92A
PoorOver: DRAIN
.11 MI E OF FDR 17, Montgomery, AR
Built 1979 ADT: 10
FDR 177
PoorOver: DRAIN
15.2 MI E OF HWY 8, Montgomery, AR
Built 1985 ADT: 50
FDR 6
PoorOver: BRUSHY CREEK
.06 MI S OF HWY 270, Montgomery, AR
Built 1925 Load: 14.6 t ADT: 50
State Highway 240
PoorOver: Caddo River-Montgomery
.03 M W jct of SH 8, Montgomery, AR
Built 1966 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 700
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.