County profile · official public datasets

Phillips County, AR

101 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.6% rated Good, 40.6% Fair, 21.8% Poor.

101
Public bridges: 37.6%
Good condition: 21.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Phillips County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

75th
of 75 on Poor share: 21.8%
Poor-condition share: 101
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Phillips County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Phillips County ranks #75 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 21.8%). Phillips County, Arkansas contains 101 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.6% are rated “Good,” 40.6% “Fair,” and 21.8% “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

101

Public highway bridges in Phillips County

Good condition

37.6%

38 of 101 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40.6%

41 of 101 rated 5-6

Poor condition

21.8%

22 of 101 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#75 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 101 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.6% (38)

Fair

40.6% (41)

Poor

21.8% (22)

Phillips County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,805 vehicle crossings a day

That is 16.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 21.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 855 crossings a day against 1,216 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 101 of 101 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.6% of Phillips County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

43 of the 101 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 37.6% 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 42.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Us-49/Sec10/L17.99 over Ar Delta Heritage Trail, built 1948, carries 8,056 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 18,805 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

1
1940s

4
1950s

12
1960s

10
1970s

31
1980s

3
1990s

14
2000s

5
2010s

10
2020s

11

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1983) matches the Arkansas average (1980).

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Phillips County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 21.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Phillips County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bradley County	105	58.1%	38.1%	3.8%	1988
Fulton County	105	39%	48.6%	12.4%	1969
Dallas County	103	56.3%	38.8%	4.9%	1980
Phillips County (this page)	101	37.6%	40.6%	21.8%	1983
Boone County	98	54.1%	42.9%	3.1%	1971
Van Buren County	98	44.9%	48%	7.1%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (101 bridges here).

Gilmer County, GA · 101 bridges
Beltrami County, MN · 101 bridges
Phillips County, MT · 101 bridges
Catron County, NM · 101 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 101 Good 38 Fair 41 Poor 22

Good-condition bridges (38)

Sort:

Phillips County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Phillips County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,805 vehicle crossings a day

42.6% of Phillips County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 42.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Phillips 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 (38)

Sh-318/Sec-3/L3.62

Sh-316/Sec1/L10.63

Sh-316/Sec1/L11.21

SH242/ SEC1/ L7.95

Sh-20/Sec-1/L23.0

Us49/Sec-10/L17.60

Sh-1/Sec-7/L-0.79

Sh-243/Sec-1/L2.30

Sh-1/Sec-7/L-4.01

Sh-1/Sec-7/L-4.89

Sh-318/Sec-3/L8.27

Us-49/Sec10/L11.0

Sh-242/Sec-1/L5.26

Sh-316/Sec1/L10.04

Us49/Sec-10/L15.72

Sh-44/Sec-3/L10.21

Sh-318/Sec-3/L9.73

Us-49/Sec-10/L0.83

Sh241/Sec02/L4.80

Cr-218/Z-D/L-0.77

Cr-300/Z-C/L-9.0

Cr-350/Z-H/L-5.68

Cr-103/Z-E/L2.05

Cr-240/Z-D/L-1.49

Cr-240/Z-D/L-1.83

Us49/Sec-10/L12.62

Us-49/Sec10/L12.92

Cr-512/Z-I/L-1.17

Cr-515/Z-J/L-0.81

Cr-401/Z-B/L-5.82

CR 245/Z-D/L-1.37

CR-361/Z-I/L-2.0

Sh-1/Sec-8/L-4.28

Sh 44/sec-03/L4.84

Sh316/Sec1/L-4.75

SH-316/Sec-1/L4.27

SH 39/Sec 11/L4.49

Sh-85/Sec-1/L-7.30

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