Total bridges
227
Public highway bridges in Yell County
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.
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.
When Yell County's bridges were built
227 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 13
1920–1929
13 bridges
- 1930s 16
1930–1939
16 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
29 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
36 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
34 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
48 bridges
- 1990s 19
1990–1999
19 bridges
- 2000s 18
2000–2009
18 bridges
- 2010s 7
2010–2019
7 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (124)
SH 314
GoodOver: Turner Creek
2.8 MI E JCT SH 27 & 314, Yell, AR
Built 1973 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 150
SH 314
GoodOver: Buchanan Creek
5.43 MI E OF JCT SH 27, Yell, AR
Built 1973 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 150
SH 309
GoodOver: Cedar Creek
2.9MI SO JCT SH 10, Yell, AR
Built 1979 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 560
SH 309
GoodOver: Rock Creek
1MI SO JCT SH 309 & 10, Yell, AR
Built 1979 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 560
SH 309
GoodOver: Rock Creek
.2MI SO JCT SH 10, Yell, AR
Built 1979 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 560
SH 155
GoodOver: Mill Creek
.06 MI N JCT SH 154, Yell, AR
Built 1989 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 700
SH 7
GoodOver: Petit Jean River
3.45 MI N SH 10, Yell, AR
Built 1993 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,100
SH 10
GoodOver: McCargo Creek
1.1 MI E SH 27, Yell, AR
Built 1996 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,200
SH 7
GoodOver: Pond Creek
6.36 MI NE SH 10-OLA, Yell, AR
Built 1996 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,100
SH 10
GoodOver: Coker Creek
3.25 M W Perry Co Line, Yell, AR
Built 1998 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,100
SH 10
GoodOver: Mason Creek
2.05 M W Perry Co Line, Yell, AR
Built 1998 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,100
SH 27
GoodOver: Smiley Bayou
0.28 MI W SH 7, Yell, AR
Built 2000 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 6,600
SH 10
GoodOver: Cedar Creek
1.5 MI. SE. SH 309, Yell, AR
Built 2001 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,514
SH 10
GoodOver: Rock Creek
2.47 Mi E of Logan Co Lin, Yell, AR
Built 2005 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,300
SH 7
GoodOver: Little Rock & Western RR
0.25 Mi N jct SH10, Yell, AR
Built 2013 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,100
Cedar Creek Rd
GoodOver: Martin Creek
2.7 MI W CR 23 & SH 307, Yell, AR
Built 1989 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 429
Wildcat Hollow Rd.
GoodOver: CREEK
.56 W SH 22, Yell, AR
Built 1999 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 788
Bethel Rd.
GoodOver: Hayes Creek
2.80 M N Jct SH 27, Yell, AR
Built 2001 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,495
Young Gravelly Rd
GoodOver: Rock Creek
4.3 M NE Gravelly, Yell, AR
Built 2020 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 100
SH 7
GoodOver: Keeland Creek
4.51 MI NW Perry Co, Yell, AR
Built 2016 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 850
FDR 776A
GoodOver: WEST GAFFORDS CREEK
1.35 MI N OF FDR 776, Yell, AR
Built 1972 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 100
FDR 776A
GoodOver: WEST GAFFORDS CREEK
.5 MI N OF FDR 776, Yell, AR
Built 1972 Load: 36.6 t ADT: 100
FDR 970
GoodOver: GAFFORDS CREEK
.15 MI W OF FDR 519, Yell, AR
Built 1972 Load: 36.6 t ADT: 50
FDR 970
GoodOver: WEST GAFFORDS CRK
.8 MI W OF FDR 519, Yell, AR
Built 1972 Load: 36.6 t ADT: 50
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.