Total bridges
224
Public highway bridges in Sullivan County
County profile · official public datasets
Sullivan County, MO
224 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.3% rated Good, 36.6% Fair, 7.1% Poor.
- 224
- Public bridges
- 56.3%
- Good condition
- 7.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sullivan County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 36%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 7.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 224
- public highway bridges
- 1990
- 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.
Sullivan County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sullivan County ranks #41 of 115 Missouri counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Sullivan County, Missouri contains 224 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.3% are rated “Good,” 36.6% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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
56.3%
126 of 224 rated 7-9
Fair condition
36.6%
82 of 224 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.1%
16 of 224 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#41 of 115
Among Missouri counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 224 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 56.3% (126)
Fair 36.6% (82)
Poor 7.1% (16)
Sullivan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,782 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 111 crossings a day against 146 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 224 of 224 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
23.2% of Sullivan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
52 of the 224 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 56.3% 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 32.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RT OO S over LOCUST CR, built 1961, carries 572 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,782 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Sullivan County's bridges were built
224 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 8
1930–1939
8 bridges
- 1940s 9
1940–1949
9 bridges
- 1950s 19
1950–1959
19 bridges
- 1960s 10
1960–1969
10 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s 5
1980–1989
5 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
74 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
57 bridges
- 2010s 29
2010–2019
29 bridges
- 2020s 7
2020–2029
7 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 74 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1990, 11 years newer than the Missouri average of 1979.
How Sullivan County compares with Missouri's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Missouri counties nearest Sullivan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 12 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 114 Missouri counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saline County | 230 | 33.9% | 53% | 13% | 1976 |
| Butler County | 227 | 49.3% | 42.3% | 8.4% | 1981 |
| Cole County | 227 | 27.3% | 63.9% | 8.8% | 1982 |
| Pike County | 225 | 34.7% | 56.9% | 8.4% | 1981 |
| Sullivan County (this page) | 224 | 56.3% | 36.6% | 7.1% | 1990 |
| Daviess County | 222 | 27.5% | 48.2% | 24.3% | 1970 |
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 Sullivan 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 Sullivan County, both outside Missouri so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MO (224 bridges here).
- Conecuh County, AL · 224 bridges
- Sac County, IA · 224 bridges
- Riley County, KS · 224 bridges
- Clarke County, MS · 224 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MO (1990 here).
- Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
- Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
- Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
- Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (16)
POND RD
PoorOver: LIT YELLOW CR
S 7 T 62 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1930 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 5
S STATE ST
PoorOver: UNNAMED CR
S 10 T 62 N R 20 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 2002 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 100
HAVEN RD
PoorOver: UNNAMED CR
S 8 T 62 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1930 Load: 5.4 t ADT: 5
RT PP E
PoorOver: W LOCUST CR
S 3 T 62 N R 21 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1955 Load: 9.9 t ADT: 72
MO 129 S
PoorOver: SPRING CR
S 18 T 64 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1950 Load: 9.9 t ADT: 78
MO 129 S
PoorOver: N SPRING CR
S 4 T 64 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1950 Load: 9.9 t ADT: 78
IVORY RD
PoorOver: MUSSEL CR
S 14 T 61 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1995 Load: 12.6 t ADT: 20
RT T S
PoorOver: E LOCUST CR
S 3 T 61 N R 20 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1949 Load: 12.6 t ADT: 267
RT OO S
PoorOver: LOCUST CR
S 17 T 63 N R 20 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1961 Load: 14.4 t ADT: 572
BOYNTON RD E
PoorOver: E LOCUST CR
S 1 T 63 N R 20 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1966 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 50
COLONIAL DR
PoorOver: UNNAMED CR
S 2 T 64 N R 21 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1993 Load: 18.9 t ADT: 15
COAL DR
PoorOver: UNNAMED CR
S 11 T 64 N R 21 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1993 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 10
RT N E
PoorOver: LIT YELLOW CR
S 10 T 63 N R 19 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1922 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 435
TOWER RD
PoorOver: YELLOW CR
S 11 T 61 N R 19 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1994 Load: 43.2 t ADT: 30
ALAN DR
PoorOver: UNAMED STREAM
S 1 T 62 N R 22 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1997 Load: 47.7 t ADT: 15
IMPALA DR
PoorOver: MUSSEL CR
S 25 T 61 N R 18 W, Sullivan, MO
Built 1995 Load: 47.7 t ADT: 30
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.