County profile · official public datasets

Ozark County, MO

82 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20.7% rated Good, 75.6% Fair, 3.7% Poor.

82
Public bridges: 20.7%
Good condition: 3.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ozark County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 7%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.7%
Poor-condition share: 82
public highway bridges: 1968
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.

Ozark County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ozark County ranks #8 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.7%). Ozark County, Missouri contains 82 public highway bridges. Roughly 20.7% are rated “Good,” 75.6% “Fair,” and 3.7% “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 Ozark County

Good condition

20.7%

17 of 82 rated 7-9

Fair condition

75.6%

62 of 82 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.7%

3 of 82 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 115

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

Condition distribution

Share of 82 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

20.7% (17)

Fair

75.6% (62)

Poor

3.7% (3)

Ozark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,845 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 615 crossings a day against 358 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 82 of 82 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

61% of Ozark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 82 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 20.7% 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 78.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 160 E over BULL SHOALS LK, built 1951, carries 1,453 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,845 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

2
1930s

8
1940s

6
1950s

18
1960s

11
1970s

14
1980s

4
1990s

4
2000s

4
2010s

9
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 18 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1968, 11 years older than the Missouri average of 1979.

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

The 5 Missouri counties nearest Ozark County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ozark County and the 5 Missouri counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Reynolds County	91	22%	68.1%	9.9%	1966
Oregon County	84	22.6%	69%	8.3%	1957
Ozark County (this page)	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	75	18.7%	74.7%	6.7%	1963

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MO (82 bridges here).

Murray County, GA · 82 bridges
Gallatin County, IL · 82 bridges
Thomas County, KS · 82 bridges
Nicholas County, KY · 82 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1968 here).

Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges

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

All 82 Good 17 Fair 62 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (62)

Sort:

Ozark County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ozark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,845 vehicle crossings a day

61% of Ozark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 78.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ozark 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 (62)

COUNTY RD 150

BALL PARK RD

COUNTY RD PP-300

COUNTY RD A-843

COUNTY RD 95-844

COUNTY RD T-503

COUNTY RD W-619

RT T E

MO 142 E

MO 181 S

COUNTY RD 950

MO 181 S

COUNTY RD 5-833

MO 95 S

MO 95 S

MO 95 S

COUNTY RD 942

COUNTY RD JJ-945

COUNTY RD 95-849

COUNTY RD 95-830

COUNTY RD 328

COUNTY RD 311

COUNTY RD 314

COUNTY RD Z-831

COUNTY RD Z-831

COUNTY RD Z-850

COUNTY RD Z-861

COUNTY RD 855

COUNTY RD 95-881

COUNTY RD 544

COUNTY RD 830

RT N E

MO 95 S

MO 181 S

RT H S

MO 5 S

RT N E

RT T E

US 160 E

MO 95 S

COUNTY RD 648

RT V S

RT PP S

RT O E

RT N E

RT PP S

RT N E

COUNTY RD 952

RT V S

RT V S

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