County profile · official public datasets

Union County, MS

202 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.5% rated Good, 45% Fair, 1.5% Poor.

202
Public bridges: 53.5%
Good condition: 1.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Union County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 10%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.5%
Poor-condition share: 202
public highway bridges: 1990
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.

Union County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Union County ranks #8 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Union County, Mississippi contains 202 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.5% are rated “Good,” 45% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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

202

Public highway bridges in Union County

Good condition

53.5%

108 of 202 rated 7-9

Fair condition

45%

91 of 202 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.5%

3 of 202 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 82

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

Condition distribution

Share of 202 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53.5% (108)

Fair

45% (91)

Poor

1.5% (3)

Union County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,875 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,625 crossings a day against 3,584 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 202 of 202 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

22.8% of Union County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

46 of the 202 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 53.5% 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 61.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 348 over KINGS CREEK, built 1952, carries 3,000 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,875 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

7
1940s

4
1950s

5
1960s

18
1970s

36
1980s

16
1990s

39
2000s

40
2010s

32
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the Mississippi average (1986).

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

The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Union County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Union County and the 5 Mississippi counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Prentiss County	205	68.8%	26.3%	4.9%	1987
Union County (this page)	202	53.5%	45%	1.5%	1990
Marion County	201	72.1%	22.9%	5%	1987
Noxubee County	201	50.2%	45.8%	4%	1985
Simpson County	200	63.5%	30%	6.5%	1984
Leake County	199	80.9%	18.1%	1%	1986

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MS (202 bridges here).

Elmore County, AL · 202 bridges
Clark County, AR · 202 bridges
St. Francis County, AR · 202 bridges
Floyd County, GA · 202 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1990 here).

Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges

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

All 202 Good 108 Fair 91 Poor 3

All bridges (202)

Sort:

Union County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Union County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,875 vehicle crossings a day

22.8% of Union County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 61.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Union 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

All bridges (202)

COUNTY ROAD 107

I 22

COUNTY ROAD 146

SR 355

SR 15

COUNTY ROAD 171

COUNTY ROAD 47

SR 30

I 22

MUNSFORD DRIVE

SR 178

OXFORD ROAD

SR 15

SR 15

COUNTY ROAD 220

COUNTY ROAD 120

COUNTY ROAD 216

I 22

I 22

I 22

COUNTY ROAD 47

I 22

I 22

I 22

I 22

COUNTY ROAD 69

I 22

COUNTY ROAD 54

COUNTY ROAD 69

I 22

COUNTY ROAD 126

COUNTY ROAD 205

COUNTY ROAD 143

COUNTY ROAD 87

COUNTY ROAD 162

SR 348

COUNTY ROAD 107

COUNTY ROAD 124

I 22

I 22

SR 780

COUNTY ROAD 54

COUNTY ROAD 46

SR 15

COUNTY ROAD 137

SR 30

COUNTY ROAD 10

COUNTY ROAD 46

SR 15

COUNTY ROAD 515

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