County profile · official public datasets

Dent County, MO

75 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.3% rated Good, 70.7% Fair, 8% Poor.

75
Public bridges: 21.3%
Good condition: 8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Dent County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 8%
Poor-condition share: 75
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Dent County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Dent County ranks #50 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8%). Dent County, Missouri contains 75 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.3% are rated “Good,” 70.7% “Fair,” and 8% “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

Public highway bridges in Dent County

Good condition

21.3%

16 of 75 rated 7-9

Fair condition

70.7%

53 of 75 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6 of 75 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#50 of 115

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

Condition distribution

Share of 75 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

21.3% (16)

Fair

70.7% (53)

Poor

8% (6)

Dent County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,529 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,422 crossings a day against 1,442 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 75 of 75 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.3% of Dent County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

43 of the 75 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 21.3% 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 59.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MO 19 S over SPRING CR, built 1930, carries 5,058 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 8,529 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

16
1940s

3
1950s

14
1960s

6
1970s

2
1980s

11
1990s

6
2000s

5
2010s

8
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 10 years older than the Missouri average of 1979.

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

The 5 Missouri counties nearest Dent County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Dent County and the 5 Missouri counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Oregon County	84	22.6%	69%	8.3%	1957
Ozark County	82	20.7%	75.6%	3.7%	1968
Worth County	81	46.9%	33.3%	19.8%	1983
Douglas County	75	18.7%	74.7%	6.7%	1963
Dent County (this page)	75	21.3%	70.7%	8%	1969
Maries County	69	31.9%	52.2%	15.9%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MO (75 bridges here).

Washington County, CO · 75 bridges
Bradford County, FL · 75 bridges
Toombs County, GA · 75 bridges
McLean County, KY · 75 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 75 Good 16 Fair 53 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (53)

Sort:

Dent County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Dent County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,529 vehicle crossings a day

57.3% of Dent County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 59.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Dent County compares with Missouri'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 (53)

COUNTY RD 2020

COUNTY RD 2020

COUNTY RD 4050

COUNTY RD 4380

COUNTY RD 6080

COUNTY RD 5670

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COUNTY RD 2020

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COUNTY RD 2380

MO 119 S

MO 68 E

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MO 68 E

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MO 68 E

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MO 32 E

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MO 72 E

MO 68 E

MO 68 E

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10TH STREET

MO 19 S

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OLD MO 72 E

MO 32 E

MO 32 E

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MO 32 W

MO 72 E

MO 32 E

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COUNTY RD 2400

MO 19 S

MO 32 E

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MO 19 S

MO 32 E

MO 32 W

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