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.

When St. Francis County's bridges were built

202 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

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.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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 Poor
Clark County 202 3%
St. Francis County (this page) 202 6.4%
Clay County 200 9.5%
Montgomery County 199 2%
Scott County 198 6.6%
Poinsett County 194 16%

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).

Similar average build year

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

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)

I-40WB/Se51/258.76

Fair

Over: Drainage Canel

1 Mi W Jct Sh 149 & I-40, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 9,750

I 40WB/Se51/260.17

Fair

Over: Drainage Ditch Number 22

0.37 Miles East Of Sh 149, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 7,907

I-40WB/Se51/253.72

Fair

Over: Beaver Slough

2.38 Miles Sw Jct Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 2004 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 36,000

I-40EB/Se51/237.82

Fair

Over: Spring Creek

4.6 Miles Ne Of Sh 261, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 16,791

I-40EB/Se51/239.44

Fair

Over: Drainage Ditch

0.48 Miles West Of Sh 1, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 29,000

I-40EB/Se51/243.22

Fair

Over: Crow Creek

1.25 Mi East Jct Sh 284, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 17,500

I-40EB/Se51/245.08

Fair

Over: St Francis River

1.9 Miles Sw Of Jct Sh 38, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 34,000

I-40EB/Se51/219.89

Fair

Over: Flat Fork Creek

4.23 Mi East Of Jct Sh 17, St. Francis, AR

Built 1967 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 16,000

I-40EB/Se51/226.19

Fair

Over: Big Creek

10.52 Miles East Of Sh 17, St. Francis, AR

Built 1967 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 17,000

I-40EB/Se51/254.47

Fair

Over: Cr-447/Z-D/L-0.06

1.69 Miles Sw Of Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 36,000

I-40EB/Se51/255.31

Fair

Over: Little Blevins Bayou

0.93 Mi West Of Jct Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 8,250

I-40EB/Se51/256.24

Fair

Over: Sh-75/Sec-1/L-0.07

3.65 Miles West Of Sh 149, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 36,000

I-40EB/Se51/257.69

Fair

Over: Allen Bayou

1.53 Miles North Of Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 9,750

I-40EB/Se51/257.87

Fair

Over: Cr-512/Z-D/L-0.06

1.7 Miles Ne Of Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 36,000

I-40EB/Se51/258.76

Fair

Over: Canel

1 Mile West Of Sh 149, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 9,750

I-40EB/Se51/260.17

Fair

Over: Ditch Number 22

0.37 Miles East Of Sh 149, St. Francis, AR

Built 1965 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 7,907

I-40EB/Se51/253.87

Fair

Over: Beaver Slough

2.37 Miles Sw Of Sh 75, St. Francis, AR

Built 2004 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 36,000

Sh-1/Sec-12/L-6.88

Fair

Over: Drainage Ditch

6.88 North Of Jct Us 70, St. Francis, AR

Built 1934 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 8,900

Sh-306/Sec-3/L0.46

Fair

Over: Taylor Creek

0.46 Mi East Of Jct Sh 1, St. Francis, AR

Built 1976 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 950

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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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.