County profile · official public datasets

Polk County, AR

221 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20.8% rated Good, 66.5% Fair, 12.7% Poor.

221
Public bridges: 20.8%
Good condition: 12.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Polk County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

70th
of 75 on Poor share: 12.7%
Poor-condition share: 221
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Polk County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Polk County ranks #70 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.7%). Polk County, Arkansas contains 221 public highway bridges. Roughly 20.8% are rated “Good,” 66.5% “Fair,” and 12.7% “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

221

Public highway bridges in Polk County

Good condition

20.8%

46 of 221 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.5%

147 of 221 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.7%

28 of 221 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#70 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 221 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

20.8% (46)

Fair

66.5% (147)

Poor

12.7% (28)

Polk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 19,108 vehicle crossings a day

That is 7.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 682 crossings a day against 599 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 221 of 221 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

60.6% of Polk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

134 of the 221 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 20.8% 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 26.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 71 - Polk Co over Six Mile Creek, built 1940, carries 5,100 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 28-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 19,108 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

3
1920s

8
1930s

35
1940s

30
1950s

47
1960s

10
1970s

5
1980s

31
1990s

21
2000s

11
2010s

15
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 47 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 15 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Polk County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1981 is 16 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Polk County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Saline County	231	56.7%	39.4%	3.9%	1990
Yell County	227	54.6%	44.1%	1.3%	1971
Hot Spring County	222	22.1%	73%	5%	1972
Polk County (this page)	221	20.8%	66.5%	12.7%	1965
Faulkner County	219	56.6%	42%	1.4%	1987
Miller County	216	64.4%	32.9%	2.8%	1986

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (221 bridges here).

Daviess County, IN · 221 bridges
Beauregard County, LA · 221 bridges
Crawford County, OH · 221 bridges
Union County, OH · 221 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges

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

All 221 Good 46 Fair 147 Poor 28

Good-condition bridges (46)

Sort:

Polk County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Polk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 19,108 vehicle crossings a day

60.6% of Polk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Polk 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 (46)

FSR 808

FDR 528

FDR 173

County Road 45

State Highway 88

County Road 76B

US 71 - Polk Co

County Road 630

Co Rd 95 Polk Co.

SH 375 - Polk Co.

County Road 70-B

County Road 42

US 71-Polk Co

FDR 76

CR 657 - Polk Co.

SH 375 - Polk Co

County Road 48 - D

County Road 67

County Road 67

Baker Rd- Wickes

State Highway 370

SH 84 SEC 0

SH 84 - Polk Co.

CO RD 671

SH 8

County Road 67

County Road 67

County Road 70-B

County Road 48

County Road 38-D

County Road 38

Co Rd 95 Polk Co.

County Road 74

Polk County Rd 67

US 71-Polk Co.

CO RD 246 - Zone G

Cherry Street

CR 56 ZONE A

Big Fork Athens Rd

Rt 6-Polk Co

County Road 4

CR 675 Zone B

SH 375 - Polk Co.

State Highway 8

NFSR 140

277

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