County profile · official public datasets

Yell County, AR

227 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.6% rated Good, 44.1% Fair, 1.3% Poor.

227
Public bridges: 54.6%
Good condition: 1.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Yell County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 9%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.3%
Poor-condition share: 227
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.

Yell County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Yell County ranks #7 of 75 Arkansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Yell County, Arkansas contains 227 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.6% are rated “Good,” 44.1% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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

227

Public highway bridges in Yell County

Good condition

54.6%

124 of 227 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.1%

100 of 227 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.3%

3 of 227 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 75

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

Condition distribution

Share of 227 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.6% (124)

Fair

44.1% (100)

Poor

1.3% (3)

Yell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,220 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 407 crossings a day against 1,261 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 227 of 227 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.4% of Yell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

119 of the 227 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 54.6% 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 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Hwy 27 Side Drain over Creek, built 1968, carries 610 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,220 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

13
1930s

16
1940s

4
1950s

29
1960s

36
1970s

34
1980s

48
1990s

19
2000s

18
2010s

7
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 9 years older than the Arkansas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Arkansas counties nearest Yell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 8 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Yell 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	231	56.7%	39.4%	3.9%	1990
Yell County (this page)	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 Yell 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 Yell County, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AR (227 bridges here).

McHenry County, IL · 227 bridges
LaPorte County, IN · 227 bridges
Rush County, IN · 227 bridges
St. Joseph County, IN · 227 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.

All 227 Good 124 Fair 100 Poor 3

Good-condition bridges (124)

Sort:

Yell County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Yell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,220 vehicle crossings a day

52.4% of Yell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Yell 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

Good-condition bridges (124)

SH 154

SH 28

SH 7

Growley Rd

SH 10

SH 60

SH 10

SH 10

SH 22

SH 27

SH 27

SH 28

SH 80

SH 80

SH 28

Spring Creek Rd

SH 28

FDR 519

Moss Creek Rd.

Bailey Branch Rd.

SH 10

SH 28

SH 7

Walnut Grove Rd.

Walnut Grove Rd.

Spring Creek Rd

SH 28

Spring Creek Rd

SH 10

SH 307

SH 28

SH 307

SH 309

Kingston Rd.

South Road

SH 155

SH 28

SH 28

SH 22

SH 28

SH 28

SH 28

SH 28

SH 28

SH 80

SH 22

Salem Rd.

Mace Rd.

Cedar Creek Rd

SH 7

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