Total bridges
75
Public highway bridges in Dent County
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.
Good condition
21.3%
16 of 75 rated 7-9
Fair condition
70.7%
53 of 75 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8%
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.
When Dent County's bridges were built
75 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
16 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
14 bridges
- 1960s 6
1960–1969
6 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
11 bridges
- 1990s 6
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s 5
2000–2009
5 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
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.
| 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.
Poor-condition bridges (6)
EAST 2ND STREET
PoorOver: CREEK
S 18 T 34 N R 5 W, Dent, MO
Built 1925 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 200
RT B E
PoorOver: DRY CREEK
S 9 T 33 N R 5 W, Dent, MO
Built 1939 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 602
MO 19 S
PoorOver: SPRING CR
S 7 T 34 N R 5 W, Dent, MO
Built 1930 Load: 18.9 t ADT: 5,058
RT B E
PoorOver: DRY FK MERAMEC RVR
S 8 T 33 N R 4 W, Dent, MO
Built 1936 Load: 18.9 t ADT: 602
MO 19 S
PoorOver: GLADDEN CR
S 34 T 33 N R 5 W, Dent, MO
Built 1924 Load: 20.7 t ADT: 941
MO 32 E
PoorOver: HUZZAH CR
S 18 T 34 N R 3 W, Dent, MO
Built 1931 Load: 28.8 t ADT: 1,126
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.