Total bridges
208
Public highway bridges in Caldwell County
County profile · official public datasets
Caldwell County, MO
208 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.9% rated Good, 49.5% Fair, 10.6% Poor.
- 208
- Public bridges
- 39.9%
- Good condition
- 10.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Caldwell County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 75th
- of 115 on Poor share
- 10.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 208
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Caldwell County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Caldwell County ranks #75 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.6%). Caldwell County, Missouri contains 208 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.9% are rated “Good,” 49.5% “Fair,” and 10.6% “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.
Good condition
39.9%
83 of 208 rated 7-9
Fair condition
49.5%
103 of 208 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.6%
22 of 208 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#75 of 115
Among Missouri counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 208 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 39.9% (83)
Fair 49.5% (103)
Poor 10.6% (22)
Caldwell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 968 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 44 crossings a day against 195 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 208 of 208 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
47.6% of Caldwell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
99 of the 208 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 39.9% 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 20.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RT U E over TOM CR, built 1958, carries 196 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 968 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Caldwell County's bridges were built
208 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 6
1900–1909
6 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
31 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
36 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
17 bridges
- 1970s 4
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
17 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
29 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
31 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
24 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Missouri average (1979).
How Caldwell County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Missouri counties nearest Caldwell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 8 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunklin County | 214 | 43% | 50.5% | 6.5% | 1977 |
| Putnam County | 213 | 48.8% | 35.7% | 15.5% | 1985 |
| Barton County | 211 | 42.2% | 47.9% | 10% | 1977 |
| Caldwell County (this page) | 208 | 39.9% | 49.5% | 10.6% | 1975 |
| Pemiscot County | 206 | 34.5% | 56.3% | 9.2% | 1980 |
| Scotland County | 201 | 35.8% | 59.7% | 4.5% | 1995 |
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 Caldwell 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 Caldwell County, both outside Missouri so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MO (208 bridges here).
- Muscogee County, GA · 208 bridges
- Posey County, IN · 208 bridges
- Marshall County, KY · 208 bridges
- Duplin County, NC · 208 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (208)
NE OLD 36 HWY
PoorOver: UP RR
S 12 T 57 N R 27 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1935 Load: 16.2 t ADT: 100
NW OLD 36 HWY
PoorOver: BRUSHY CR
S 21 T 57 N R 29 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1922 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 100
NE SANDSTONE DR
PoorOver: BR OF LIT OTTER CR
S 20 T 57 N R 27 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1939 Load: 18.9 t ADT: 15
RT U E
PoorOver: TOM CR
S 2 T 56 N R 28 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1958 Load: 18.9 t ADT: 196
SW HEREFORD DR
PoorOver: BR OF LONG CR
S 29 T 55 N R 28 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1950 Load: 19.8 t ADT: 10
NW BARWICK DR
PoorOver: MILL CR
S 29 T 57 N R 28 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1939 Load: 25.2 t ADT: 20
NE SUNSET RD
PoorOver: LICK FK CR
S 7 T 57 N R 27 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1991 Load: 25.2 t ADT: 10
NW MILL CR DR
PoorOver: MILL CR
S 20 T 57 N R 28 W, Caldwell, MO
Built 1982 Load: 26.1 t ADT: 25
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.