County profile · official public datasets

Perry County, AR

118 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 60.2% rated Good, 38.1% Fair, 1.7% Poor.

118
Public bridges: 60.2%
Good condition: 1.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Perry 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 13%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.7%
Poor-condition share: 118
public highway bridges: 1968
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.

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Perry County ranks #10 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.7%). Perry County, Arkansas contains 118 public highway bridges. Roughly 60.2% are rated “Good,” 38.1% “Fair,” and 1.7% “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

118

Public highway bridges in Perry County

Good condition

60.2%

71 of 118 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.1%

45 of 118 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.7%

2 of 118 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 118 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

60.2% (71)

Fair

38.1% (45)

Poor

1.7% (2)

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 66 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 33 crossings a day against 897 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 118 of 118 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55.1% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

65 of the 118 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 60.2% 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 51.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Wallace Bridge Rd over Fourche La Fave River, built 1909, carries 34 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 66 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

8
1930s

14
1940s

6
1950s

17
1960s

13
1970s

9
1980s

19
1990s

12
2000s

11
2010s

4
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 19 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 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1968, 12 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Perry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Perry County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Conway County	122	53.3%	46.7%	0%	1974
Carroll County	119	47.1%	50.4%	2.5%	1975
Grant County	119	68.9%	29.4%	1.7%	1980
Perry County (this page)	118	60.2%	38.1%	1.7%	1968
Howard County	116	40.5%	56%	3.4%	1978
Calhoun County	114	54.4%	40.4%	5.3%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (118 bridges here).

Autauga County, AL · 118 bridges
Montrose County, CO · 118 bridges
Rabun County, GA · 118 bridges
Johnson County, IL · 118 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1968 here).

Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges

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

All 118 Good 71 Fair 45 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (71)

Sort:

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 66 vehicle crossings a day

55.1% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 51.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Perry 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

Good-condition bridges (71)

FDR 45

FDR 45

Bethel RD

SH 10

SH 324

SH 10

SH 10

Poe Farm Rd

SH 10

SH 10

SH 60

SH 10

SH 60

SH 60

SH 10

SH 324

SH 7

SH 10

SH 60

Trail 86

Smith Crossing Rd

Stony Point Rd

SH 9

SH 9

SH 10

SH 10

SH 60

SH 60

SH 60

SH 216

6th Street Casa

SH 7

SH 10

SH 60

SH 60

SH 314

SH 314

SH 60

SH 155

Trail 86

Trail 86

Casa Mtn. Rd

SH 155

SH 10

SH 10

SH 60

SH 113

SH 324

SH 7

W Perry Co Line Rd

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