County profile · official public datasets

Douglas County, MO

75 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 18.7% rated Good, 74.7% Fair, 6.7% Poor.

75
Public bridges: 18.7%
Good condition: 6.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Douglas 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 34%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.7%
Poor-condition share: 75
public highway bridges: 1963
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.

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Douglas County ranks #39 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.7%). Douglas County, Missouri contains 75 public highway bridges. Roughly 18.7% are rated “Good,” 74.7% “Fair,” and 6.7% “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 Douglas County

Good condition

18.7%

14 of 75 rated 7-9

Fair condition

74.7%

56 of 75 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.7%

5 of 75 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 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

18.7% (14)

Fair

74.7% (56)

Poor

6.7% (5)

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,491 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 298 crossings a day against 536 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.

66.7% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 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 18.7% 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 56.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MO 76 E over INDIAN CR, built 1948, carries 844 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,491 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

2
1920s

5
1930s

11
1940s

10
1950s

15
1960s

7
1970s

1
1980s

3
1990s

6
2000s

3
2010s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 16 years older than the Missouri average of 1979.

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

The 5 Missouri counties nearest Douglas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.7% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 7 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Douglas 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
Dent County	75	21.3%	70.7%	8%	1969
Douglas County (this page)	75	18.7%	74.7%	6.7%	1963
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 Douglas 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 Douglas 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 (1963 here).

Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges

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

All 75 Good 14 Fair 56 Poor 5

Fair-condition bridges (56)

Sort:

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,491 vehicle crossings a day

66.7% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 56.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Douglas 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 (56)

COUNTY RD EE-160

COUNTY RD 109

CO RD 181-282

COUNTY RD 275

RT A E

MO 76 E

MO 14 E

MO 76 E

MO 14 E

RT B S

RT B S

MO 76 E

COUNTY RD 14-535

COUNTY RD K-514

COUNTY RD 5-104

COUNTY RD VV-215

COUNTY RD DD-447

COUNTY RD 14-335

MO 14 E

COUNTY RD C-230

RT AP S

MO 14 E

MO 14 E

MO 76 E

COUNTY RD 5-103

COUNTY RD 437

COUNTY RD 76-101

MO 14 E

RT P S

MO 76 E

MO 14 E

MO 14 E

RT KK S

RT EE S

RT EE S

RT AF E

MO 5 S

RT A E

COUNTY RD A-409

MO 76 E

COUNTY RD N-345

COUNTY RD 260

MO 14 E

MO 76 E

RT O S

MO 14 E

MO 5 S

MO 5 S

MO 5 S

RT AM E

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