Total bridges
133
Public highway bridges in Howard County
County profile · official public datasets
Howard County, MO
133 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.1% rated Good, 49.6% Fair, 8.3% Poor.
- 133
- Public bridges
- 42.1%
- Good condition
- 8.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Howard County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 44%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 8.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 133
- public highway bridges
- 1980
- 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.
Howard County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Howard County ranks #51 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.3%). Howard County, Missouri contains 133 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.1% are rated “Good,” 49.6% “Fair,” and 8.3% “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
42.1%
56 of 133 rated 7-9
Fair condition
49.6%
66 of 133 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8.3%
11 of 133 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#51 of 115
Among Missouri counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 133 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 42.1% (56)
Fair 49.6% (66)
Poor 8.3% (11)
Howard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,056 vehicle crossings a day
That is 8.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 460 crossings a day against 383 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 133 of 133 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
39.1% of Howard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
52 of the 133 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 42.1% 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 32.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
MO 3 S over KSC RR, built 1941, carries 1,661 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 5,056 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Howard County's bridges were built
133 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 3
1900–1909
3 bridges
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
18 bridges
- 1970s 6
1970–1979
6 bridges
- 1980s 9
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
31 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
21 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
16 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Missouri average (1979).
How Howard County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Missouri counties nearest Howard County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 10 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Clair County | 139 | 25.2% | 55.4% | 19.4% | 1972 |
| Ralls County | 138 | 31.9% | 60.9% | 7.2% | 1976 |
| Mercer County | 137 | 44.5% | 36.5% | 19% | 1976 |
| Benton County | 135 | 11.9% | 67.4% | 20.7% | 1964 |
| Howard County (this page) | 133 | 42.1% | 49.6% | 8.3% | 1980 |
| Wright County | 131 | 21.4% | 67.2% | 11.5% | 1964 |
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 Howard 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 Howard County, both outside Missouri so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MO (133 bridges here).
- Henry County, AL · 133 bridges
- Nevada County, AR · 133 bridges
- Gordon County, GA · 133 bridges
- East Feliciana County, LA · 133 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1980 here).
- Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
- Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
- Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
- McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (66)
COUNTY RD 259
FairOver: BATTS CR
S 18 T 52 N R 16 W, Howard, MO
Built 1991 Load: 37.8 t ADT: 35
COUNTY RD 317
FairOver: UNKNOWN CR
S 26 T 50 N R 18 W, Howard, MO
Built 1987 Load: 37.8 t ADT: 45
COUNTY RD 306
FairOver: ROCKY BR OF RICHLA
S 9 T 50 N R 17 W, Howard, MO
Built 1983 Load: 38.7 t ADT: 40
RT W E
FairOver: DOE CR
S 19 T 50 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1960 Load: 38.7 t ADT: 615
RT W E
FairOver: SALT CR
S 20 T 50 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1960 Load: 38.7 t ADT: 615
MO 124 E
FairOver: DRY CR
S 7 T 50 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1963 Load: 41.4 t ADT: 872
RT U E
FairOver: BONNE FEMME CR
S 28 T 52 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1958 Load: 42.3 t ADT: 74
RT FF E
FairOver: DOE CR
S 3 T 50 N R 16 W, Howard, MO
Built 1962 Load: 43.2 t ADT: 233
COUNTY RD 429
FairOver: PRAIRIE FK CR
S 14 T 49 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1998 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 70
COUNTY RD 425
FairOver: BONNE FEMME CR
S 3 T 49 N R 16 W, Howard, MO
Built 1997 Load: 46.8 t ADT: 50
COUNTY RD 409
FairOver: BR OF PRAIRIE CR
S 21 T 50 N R 14 W, Howard, MO
Built 2001 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 50
COUNTY RD 110
FairOver: TRIB MONITEAU CR
S 28 T 51 N R 14 W, Howard, MO
Built 2000 Load: 49.5 t ADT: 50
COUNTY RD 436
FairOver: BR OF MONITEAU CR
S 15 T 49 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 1997 Load: 52.2 t ADT: 50
COUNTY RD 114
FairOver: HUNGRY MOTHER CR
S 30 T 51 N R 14 W, Howard, MO
Built 1988 Load: 63.0 t ADT: 20
MO 5 S
FairOver: GREGGS CR
S 10 T 51 N R 17 W, Howard, MO
Built 1996 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 1,412
COUNTY RD 134
FairOver: BR OF SALT FK CR
S 10 T 51 N R 15 W, Howard, MO
Built 2012 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 50
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.