Total bridges
301
Public highway bridges in Harrison County
County profile · official public datasets
Harrison County, MS
301 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.8% rated Good, 41.9% Fair, 5.3% Poor.
- 301
- Public bridges
- 52.8%
- Good condition
- 5.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Harrison County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 47th
- of 82 on Poor share
- 5.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 301
- public highway bridges
- 1986
- 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.
Harrison County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Harrison County ranks #47 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.3%). Harrison County, Mississippi contains 301 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.8% are rated “Good,” 41.9% “Fair,” and 5.3% “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
52.8%
159 of 301 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.9%
126 of 301 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5.3%
16 of 301 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 82
Among Mississippi counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 301 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 52.8% (159)
Fair 41.9% (126)
Poor 5.3% (16)
Harrison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 47,302 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,153 crossings a day against 11,673 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 300 of 301 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
34.6% of Harrison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
104 of the 301 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 52.8% 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 38.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
POPPS FERRY ROAD over BACK BAY BILOXI, built 1979, carries 18,000 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 47,302 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Harrison County's bridges were built
301 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 17
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
55 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
48 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
37 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
58 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
59 bridges
- 2010s 16
2010–2019
16 bridges
- 2020s 8
2020–2029
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 59 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1986) matches the Mississippi average (1986).
How Harrison County compares with Mississippi's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Harrison County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 81 Mississippi counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jones County | 329 | 48.3% | 44.1% | 7.6% | 1982 |
| Washington County | 317 | 34.7% | 54.9% | 10.4% | 1984 |
| Madison County | 311 | 51.1% | 45.7% | 3.2% | 1983 |
| Harrison County (this page) | 301 | 52.8% | 41.9% | 5.3% | 1986 |
| Monroe County | 290 | 64.5% | 31.4% | 4.1% | 1989 |
| Forrest County | 283 | 46.3% | 49.5% | 4.2% | 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 Harrison 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 Harrison County, both outside Mississippi so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MS (301 bridges here).
- Madison County, IN · 301 bridges
- Cedar County, IA · 301 bridges
- Crawford County, IA · 301 bridges
- Penobscot County, ME · 301 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1986 here).
- El Paso County, TX · avg 1986 · 783 bridges
- Caddo County, LA · avg 1986 · 682 bridges
- Weld County, CO · avg 1986 · 614 bridges
- Polk County, IA · avg 1986 · 545 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (301)
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.