County profile · official public datasets

Saline County, AR

231 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.7% rated Good, 39.4% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

231
Public bridges: 56.7%
Good condition: 3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Saline County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 41%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.9%
Poor-condition share: 231
public highway bridges: 1990
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.

Saline County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Saline County ranks #31 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Saline County, Arkansas contains 231 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.7% are rated “Good,” 39.4% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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

231

Public highway bridges in Saline County

Good condition

56.7%

131 of 231 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.4%

91 of 231 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

9 of 231 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 231 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

56.7% (131)

Fair

39.4% (91)

Poor

3.9% (9)

Saline County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,766 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,530 crossings a day against 6,754 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 231 of 231 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

27.3% of Saline County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

63 of the 231 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 56.7% 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 87.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 167-SEC 12 NB over I 530 SB LNS Log 10.00, built 1963, carries 12,000 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 13,766 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

6
1930s

7
1940s

2
1950s

16
1960s

28
1970s

14
1980s

20
1990s

35
2000s

43
2010s

41
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 43 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1990, 10 years newer than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Saline County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 15 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Saline County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Crittenden County	235	40.4%	51.9%	7.7%	1980
Saline County (this page)	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	221	20.8%	66.5%	12.7%	1965
Faulkner County	219	56.6%	42%	1.4%	1987

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (231 bridges here).

Jones County, IA · 231 bridges
Clay County, KS · 231 bridges
Panola County, MS · 231 bridges
Burke County, NC · 231 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1990 here).

Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges

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

All 231 Good 131 Fair 91 Poor 9

All bridges (231)

Sort:

Saline County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Saline County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,766 vehicle crossings a day

27.3% of Saline County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 87.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Saline 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

All bridges (231)

Benton Parkway

CR317/ELLIOT TRAIL

Gattin Road

Sanders Ford Rd

SH 35 Log 10.39

US 67 -9 Log 6.62

ASHLEA PL.

Forest Drive

CR 33 Chicot

CR31-N. Sardis Rd

Honeysuckle Road

CR24-Germania Road

HIDDEN CREEK DRIVE

SH 9 -5 Log 5.69

SH 5 Log 3.25

SH 35 Log 4.92

Clayton Drive

W. Sardis Rd.

CR 45 / KANIS

CR 45 KANIS 1.25

CR 45 KANIS 1.60

CR 32-F PAWNEE DR

South Sardis Road

CR 106 / Rice Road

SH 367 Log 4.15

Old Johnson Hwy

Valderrama Street

Cody Road

SH 35 Log 9.97

ANGLIFDR 2

Sevier Street

CR-5 Traskwood Rd

CR717/Moody Hollow

Bryant Parkway

SH 5-8 Log 4.66

2ND STREET BENTON

CR 18 (W. Sardis)

HILLSBORO CIRCLE

CR 57D Goose Pond

RAYMAR RD

CR 45 KANIS 2.07

CR 15 Narrows RD

CR 35 Congo

CR 35 Congo

Raper Haskell Rd.

CR914 Cold Springs

Weyerhaeuser 24000

Congo Ferndale Rd

CR 3 Point View

CO RT 45 / KANIS R

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