Total bridges
98
Public highway bridges in Van Buren County
County profile · official public datasets
Van Buren County, AR
98 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.9% rated Good, 48% Fair, 7.1% Poor.
- 98
- Public bridges
- 44.9%
- Good condition
- 7.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Van Buren County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 53rd
- of 75 on Poor share
- 7.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 98
- public highway bridges
- 1979
- 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.
Van Buren County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Van Buren County ranks #53 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Van Buren County, Arkansas contains 98 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.9% are rated “Good,” 48% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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
44.9%
44 of 98 rated 7-9
Fair condition
48%
47 of 98 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.1%
7 of 98 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#53 of 75
Among Arkansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 98 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 44.9% (44)
Fair 48% (47)
Poor 7.1% (7)
Van Buren County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,228 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 604 crossings a day against 2,418 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 98 of 98 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
43.9% of Van Buren County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
43 of the 98 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 44.9% 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 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 16 over PEE DEE CREEK, built 1940, carries 1,500 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 4,228 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Van Buren County's bridges were built
98 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
10 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
15 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
9 bridges
- 1970s 7
1970–1979
7 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
15 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
12 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
19 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 19 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Arkansas average (1980).
How Van Buren County compares with Arkansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Van Buren County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 74 Arkansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas County | 103 | 56.3% | 38.8% | 4.9% | 1980 |
| Phillips County | 101 | 37.6% | 40.6% | 21.8% | 1983 |
| Boone County | 98 | 54.1% | 42.9% | 3.1% | 1971 |
| Van Buren County (this page) | 98 | 44.9% | 48% | 7.1% | 1979 |
| Pike County | 95 | 36.8% | 60% | 3.2% | 1975 |
| Lee County | 94 | 38.3% | 48.9% | 12.8% | 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 Van Buren 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 Van Buren County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AR (98 bridges here).
- Dougherty County, GA · 98 bridges
- Butler County, KY · 98 bridges
- Koochiching County, MN · 98 bridges
- Fulton County, NY · 98 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AR (1979 here).
- Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
- Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
- Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
- McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (7)
Archey Rd - D
PoorOver: Archey Creek
1.39 MI N Jct SH 16, Van Buren, AR
Built 1956 Load: 4.5 t ADT: 183
River Rd
PoorOver: Md Fk Little Red River
NW City Limits of Shirley, Van Buren, AR
Built 1910 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 78
SH 95
PoorOver: BRADLEY CR
4.0 MI SW CLINTON CITY L, Van Buren, AR
Built 1956 Load: 13.6 t ADT: 480
SH 16
PoorOver: PEE DEE CREEK
2.6 M NE OF CLINTON, Van Buren, AR
Built 1940 Load: 20.9 t ADT: 1,500
Baker Lake Rd
PoorOver: E. Fork Point Remove Crk
2.1 mi West of Jct. SH 9, Van Buren, AR
Built 2005 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 276
Sequoyah Ranch - A
PoorOver: N Fork of Cadron Creek
1.13 M N Jct Hwy 124, Van Buren, AR
Built 1980 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 211
SH 16
PoorOver: CREEK
.50 MI S OF SH 110, Van Buren, AR
Built 1957 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,500
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.