County profile · official public datasets

St. Francis County, AR

202 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.7% rated Good, 58.9% Fair, 6.4% Poor.

202
Public bridges: 34.7%
Good condition: 6.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

St. Francis 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.

48th
of 75 on Poor share: 6.4%
Poor-condition share: 202
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

St. Francis County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, St. Francis County ranks #48 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.4%). St. Francis County, Arkansas contains 202 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.7% are rated “Good,” 58.9% “Fair,” and 6.4% “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

202

Public highway bridges in St. Francis County

Good condition

34.7%

70 of 202 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58.9%

119 of 202 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.4%

13 of 202 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#48 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 202 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.7% (70)

Fair

58.9% (119)

Poor

6.4% (13)

St. Francis County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,158 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 628 crossings a day against 7,919 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 202 of 202 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

53.5% of St. Francis County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

108 of the 202 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 34.7% 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 40.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Us70/Sec-18/L17.39 over Drainage Ditch, built 1931, carries 3,300 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 8,158 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

2
1930s

33
1940s

1
1950s

10
1960s

53
1970s

25
1980s

14
1990s

19
2000s

31
2010s

11
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 6 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

How St. Francis County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest St. Francis County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for St. Francis County and the 5 Arkansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Clark County	202	43.1%	54%	3%	1974
St. Francis County (this page)	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	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 St. Francis 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 St. Francis County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (202 bridges here).

Elmore County, AL · 202 bridges
Floyd County, GA · 202 bridges
Union County, MS · 202 bridges
Hudson County, NJ · 202 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 202 Good 70 Fair 119 Poor 13

Fair-condition bridges (119)

Sort:

St. Francis County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

St. Francis County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,158 vehicle crossings a day

53.5% of St. Francis County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 40.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How St. Francis 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

Fair-condition bridges (119)

Cr-611/Z-B/L-2.91

Cr-503/Z-C/L-2.93

Sh-50/Sec-1/L-3.60

Cowan/Z-A/Hughes

Cr-801/Z-I/L-5.51

N Rosser Forest Ci

Sh-1/Sec-11/L-1.07

Sh-1B/Sec-12/L0.67

Sh-357/Sec-1/L4.33

Cr-749/Z-B/L-1.43

4th street

N Division Forest

Us-70/Sec18/L11.35

Cr-537/Z-D/L-0.35

Gore Road

Us-70/Sec18/L17.98

Sh-1B/Sec-11/L1.67

Sh-38/Sec-6/L-5.09

Sh-357/Sec-1/L5.38

I-40/Sec-51/239.04

Sh-1/Sec-11/-L6.15

Sh-1/Sec-12/L-3.01

Cr-801/Z-I/L-1.88

Cr-714/Z-J/L-0.57

Cr-736/Z-J/L-0.75

Cr-1004/Z-E/L2.03

Cr-433/Z-E/L-8.78

Cr-200/Z-F/L-2.62

Sh-149/Sec-2/L2.82

Sh-50/Sec-1/L11.08

Sh-1/Sec-12/L10.13

Sh1/Ramp/S11/L7.05

Us-70/Sec19/L18.86

Us70/Sec-19/L17.73

Cr-621/Z-A/L-1.3

Us-70/Sec19/L21.57

Us70/Sec-19/L22.45

Cr-711/Z-J/L-12.58

Sh-306/Sec-2/L7.07

Cr-107/Z-G/L-9.78

Sh-1/Sec-12/L10.69

I-40/Sec51/L243.22

Sh-1/Sec-12/L-2.75

Sh-1/Sec-12/L-3.52

Us70/Sec-19/L18.42

Us-70/Sec-18/L6.12

Goodhope Road/Z-E

Sh-50/Sec-1/L15.35

Sh-50/Sec-1/L16.22

Sh-38/Sec-7/L-3.08

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