Total bridges
198
Public highway bridges in Scott County
County profile · official public datasets
Scott County, AR
198 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26.8% rated Good, 66.7% Fair, 6.6% Poor.
- 198
- Public bridges
- 26.8%
- Good condition
- 6.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Scott 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.
- 49th
- of 75 on Poor share
- 6.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 198
- public highway bridges
- 1971
- 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.
Scott County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Scott County ranks #49 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.6%). Scott County, Arkansas contains 198 public highway bridges. Roughly 26.8% are rated “Good,” 66.7% “Fair,” and 6.6% “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.
Good condition
26.8%
53 of 198 rated 7-9
Fair condition
66.7%
132 of 198 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.6%
13 of 198 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#49 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 198 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 26.8% (53)
Fair 66.7% (132)
Poor 6.6% (13)
Scott County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,004 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 616 crossings a day against 407 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 197 of 198 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
54% of Scott County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
107 of the 198 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 26.8% 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 16.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 23-Scott Co. over Petit Jean River, built 1949, carries 1,300 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 13-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 8,004 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Scott County's bridges were built
198 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 13
1920–1929
13 bridges
- 1930s 13
1930–1939
13 bridges
- 1940s 7
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
40 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
38 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
29 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
16 bridges
- 2000s 9
2000–2009
9 bridges
- 2010s 14
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 9 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.
How Scott County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Scott County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clark County | 202 | 43.1% | 54% | 3% | 1974 |
| St. Francis County | 202 | 34.7% | 58.9% | 6.4% | 1974 |
| Clay County | 200 | 43.5% | 47% | 9.5% | 1987 |
| Montgomery County | 199 | 40.2% | 57.8% | 2% | 1975 |
| Scott County (this page) | 198 | 26.8% | 66.7% | 6.6% | 1971 |
| Poinsett County | 194 | 41.8% | 42.3% | 16% | 1982 |
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 Scott 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 Scott County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (198 bridges here).
- Fulton County, OH · 198 bridges
- Madison County, OH · 198 bridges
- Aiken County, SC · 198 bridges
- Dorchester County, SC · 198 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1971 here).
- Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
- Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
- Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
- Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (13)
State Highway 378
PoorOver: Kings Creek - Scott Co.
2.15 MI E SEBASTIAN CO LN, Scott, AR
Built 1971 Load: 3.6 t ADT: 298
Lick Skillet Road
PoorOver: Rocky Creek-Scott Co.
1.1 MI S. SH 80, Scott, AR
Built 1993 Load: 5.4 t ADT: 55
SH 28-Scott Co.
PoorOver: Fourche La Fave River
1.7 M W OF HARVEY, Scott, AR
Built 1961 Load: 9.1 t ADT: 280
State Highway 28
PoorOver: Jerico Branch-Scott Co.
12.3 M E OF OKLAHOMA SL, Scott, AR
Built 1956 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 763
State Highway 28
PoorOver: Lookout Creek-Scott Co
15.1 M E OF OKLAHOMA SL, Scott, AR
Built 1957 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 930
US Highway 270
PoorOver: Alexander Creek-Scott Co
1.58 MI E OF Y CITY, Scott, AR
Built 1928 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 1,000
US Highway 270
PoorOver: Turner Creek-Scott Co.
5.53 MI E OF Y CITY, Scott, AR
Built 1928 Load: 19.1 t ADT: 1,000
State Highway 28
PoorOver: Six Mile Creek-Scott Co.
6.2 MI W JCT SH 80 & 28, Scott, AR
Built 1968 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 763
Caldwell St.
PoorOver: Coop Creek-Scott Co.
0.10 M S US 71 & CALDWELL, Scott, AR
Built 1965 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 321
Kulp Road
PoorOver: Johnson Creek-Scott Co.
0.3 MI N US HWY 71, Scott, AR
Built 1985 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 94
SH 28-Scott Co.
PoorOver: Fourche La Fave River
6.94 MI E OF US 71 JCT, Scott, AR
Built 1961 Load: 25.4 t ADT: 280
SH 23-Scott Co.
PoorOver: Petit Jean River
0.24 MI E JCT US 71, Scott, AR
Built 1949 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 1,300
State Highway 248
PoorOver: Shipman Creek - Scott Co
0.71 MI NE JCT SH 80, Scott, AR
Built 1979 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 920
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.