County profile · official public datasets

Prairie County, AR

88 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.8% rated Good, 50% Fair, 10.2% Poor.

88
Public bridges: 39.8%
Good condition: 10.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Prairie 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.

66th
of 75 on Poor share: 10.2%
Poor-condition share: 88
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Prairie County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Prairie County ranks #66 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.2%). Prairie County, Arkansas contains 88 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.8% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 10.2% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Prairie County

Good condition

39.8%

35 of 88 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50%

44 of 88 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10.2%

9 of 88 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#66 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 88 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

39.8% (35)

Fair

50% (44)

Poor

10.2% (9)

Prairie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,901 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,545 crossings a day against 5,233 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 88 of 88 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

58% of Prairie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

51 of the 88 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 39.8% 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 26.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 63 Log 10.07 over WOLF BAYOU, built 1934, carries 3,700 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 13,901 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

13
1940s

1
1950s

8
1960s

20
1970s

19
1980s

4
1990s

5
2000s

5
2010s

12
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 7 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Prairie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.2% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Prairie County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Baxter County	91	62.6%	37.4%	0%	1984
Chicot County	88	40.9%	50%	9.1%	1973
Prairie County (this page)	88	39.8%	50%	10.2%	1973
Monroe County	85	55.3%	37.6%	7.1%	1975
Desha County	83	55.4%	39.8%	4.8%	1984
Little River County	83	54.2%	38.6%	7.2%	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 Prairie 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 Prairie County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (88 bridges here).

Grand County, CO · 88 bridges
Spalding County, GA · 88 bridges
Boise County, ID · 88 bridges
Clearwater County, ID · 88 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges

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

All 88 Good 35 Fair 44 Poor 9

Good-condition bridges (35)

Sort:

Prairie County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Prairie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,901 vehicle crossings a day

58% of Prairie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Prairie 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 (35)

US 79 Log 1.18

CR 708

SH 249 Log 1.10

US 165 Log 0.82

US 63 Log 12.33

US 63 Log 6.39

US 63 Log 1.00

US 70 Log 7.84

I-40 Log 190.10

SH 38 Log 8.88

SH 38 Log 12.91

SH 38 Log 26.33

CR 925 Hildebrand

SH 38 Log 24.77

SH 33 Log 2.43

CR11-Center Point

SH 38 Log 25.56

CR5Smith Vester Rd

SH 11 Log 2.38

SH 11Log 7.70

SH 38 Log 23.44

SH 38 Log 26.95

SH 38 Log 26.23

SH 13 Log 7.37

SH 323 Log 4.54

Kirkland Rd 27 C

Timmerman Rd/CR 7

SH 38 Log 7.75

SH 323 Log 4.20

US 70-District 6

I-40 Log 199.12

I-40 Log 200.79

I 40 District 6

Rogers Chapel Road

Branham road

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