County profile · official public datasets

Dade County, MO

161 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.6% rated Good, 58.4% Fair, 5% Poor.

161
Public bridges
36.6%
Good condition
5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Dade County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 18%
lowest Poor share in state
5%
Poor-condition share
161
public highway bridges
1972
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.

Dade County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Dade County ranks #21 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Dade County, Missouri contains 161 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.6% are rated “Good,” 58.4% “Fair,” and 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

161

Public highway bridges in Dade County

Good condition

36.6%

59 of 161 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58.4%

94 of 161 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5%

8 of 161 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#21 of 115

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

Condition distribution

Share of 161 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
36.6% (59)
Fair
58.4% (94)
Poor
5% (8)

Dade County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,956 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 370 crossings a day against 146 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 161 of 161 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

53.4% of Dade County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

86 of the 161 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 36.6% 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 53.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 160 E over KILE CR, built 1930, carries 1,578 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,956 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Dade County's bridges were built

161 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 7 years older than the Missouri average of 1979.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

How Dade County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Missouri counties nearest Dade County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Dade County and the 5 Missouri counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
St. Francois County 165 10.3%
Montgomery County 163 6.1%
Randolph County 163 3.1%
Andrew County 162 14.8%
Texas County 162 7.4%
Dade County (this page) 161 5%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MO (161 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1972 here).

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

Good-condition bridges (59)

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.