County profile · official public datasets

Panola County, MS

231 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28.6% rated Good, 65.8% Fair, 5.6% Poor.

231
Public bridges: 28.6%
Good condition: 5.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Panola 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.

50th
of 82 on Poor share: 5.6%
Poor-condition share: 231
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Panola County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Panola County ranks #50 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.6%). Panola County, Mississippi contains 231 public highway bridges. Roughly 28.6% are rated “Good,” 65.8% “Fair,” and 5.6% “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

231

Public highway bridges in Panola County

Good condition

28.6%

66 of 231 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.8%

152 of 231 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.6%

13 of 231 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#50 of 82

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

Condition distribution

Share of 231 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

28.6% (66)

Fair

65.8% (152)

Poor

5.6% (13)

Panola County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,939 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 841 crossings a day against 2,941 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 231 of 231 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.3% of Panola County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

100 of the 231 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 28.6% 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 43.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 35 over STREAM, built 1927, carries 4,800 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 10,939 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

11
1940s

11
1950s

19
1960s

38
1970s

26
1980s

10
1990s

51
2000s

32
2010s

20
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the Mississippi average of 1986.

How Panola County compares with Mississippi's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Panola County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 81 Mississippi counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Panola County and the 5 Mississippi counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Pearl River County	232	74.6%	22.4%	3%	1986
Panola County (this page)	231	28.6%	65.8%	5.6%	1981
Itawamba County	229	65.1%	31.4%	3.5%	1987
Attala County	228	67.5%	27.2%	5.3%	1985
Oktibbeha County	226	68.6%	27.9%	3.5%	1988
Carroll County	225	37.8%	40.9%	21.3%	1981

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 Panola 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 Panola County, both outside Mississippi so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MS (231 bridges here).

Saline County, AR · 231 bridges
Jones County, IA · 231 bridges
Clay County, KS · 231 bridges
Burke County, NC · 231 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 231 Good 66 Fair 152 Poor 13

Fair-condition bridges (152)

Sort:

Panola County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Panola County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,939 vehicle crossings a day

43.3% of Panola County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 43.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Panola County compares with Mississippi's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (152)

ROBINSON ROAD

COMPRESS ROAD

FERRELL ROAD

HENTZ ROAD

PEAGRAM ROAD

BELL ROAD

SILO ROAD

STILL ROAD

ABE CHAPEL ROAD

BALLENTINE ROAD

BYNUM ROAD

PEAGRAM ROAD

COMPRESS ROAD

CURTIS ROAD

CURTIS-LOCKSTATION

HENTZ ROAD

SNIDER ROAD

BENSON ROAD

BELMONT ROAD

BALLENTINE ROAD

US 278

I 55

EUREKA ROAD

CROWDER-POPE ROAD

CROWDER-POPE ROAD

US 278

US 278

SR 315

I 55

I 55

SR 35

SR 35

CURTIS-LOCKSTATION

DUMMY LINE ROAD

HOPE ROAD

I 55

I 55

I 55

I 55

I 55

SR 3

I 55

SR 315

SR 315

SR 315

SR 322

SR 310

SR 322

COMPRESS ROAD

COMPRESS ROAD

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