County profile · official public datasets

Phillips County, MT

101 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 13.9% rated Good, 69.3% Fair, 16.8% Poor.

101
Public bridges: 13.9%
Good condition: 16.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Phillips County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

55th
of 56 on Poor share: 16.8%
Poor-condition share: 101
public highway bridges: 1972
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.

Phillips County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Phillips County ranks #55 of 56 Montana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.8%). Phillips County, Montana contains 101 public highway bridges. Roughly 13.9% are rated “Good,” 69.3% “Fair,” and 16.8% “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.

Total bridges

101

Public highway bridges in Phillips County

Good condition

13.9%

14 of 101 rated 7-9

Fair condition

69.3%

70 of 101 rated 5-6

Poor condition

16.8%

17 of 101 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#55 of 56

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

Condition distribution

Share of 101 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

13.9% (14)

Fair

69.3% (70)

Poor

16.8% (17)

Phillips County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,256 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 192 crossings a day against 387 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 101 of 101 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

50.5% of Phillips County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

51 of the 101 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 13.9% 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 39.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IRR - US 2 over DRAINAGE, built 1973, carries 1,283 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 17-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,256 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

2
1930s

9
1940s

8
1950s

11
1960s

11
1970s

16
1980s

15
1990s

9
2000s

16
2010s

2
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 5 years older than the Montana average of 1977.

How Phillips County compares with Montana's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Montana counties nearest Phillips County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 6 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 55 Montana counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Phillips County and the 5 Montana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Valley County	104	10.6%	76.9%	12.5%	1975
Blaine County	102	33.3%	56.9%	9.8%	1969
Phillips County (this page)	101	13.9%	69.3%	16.8%	1972
Madison County	97	32%	56.7%	11.3%	1981
Richland County	97	28.9%	68%	3.1%	1988
Pondera County	96	51%	44.8%	4.2%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MT (101 bridges here).

Phillips County, AR · 101 bridges
Gilmer County, GA · 101 bridges
Beltrami County, MN · 101 bridges
Catron County, NM · 101 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MT (1972 here).

Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges

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

All 101 Good 14 Fair 70 Poor 17

All bridges (101)

Sort:

Phillips County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Phillips County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,256 vehicle crossings a day

50.5% of Phillips County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 39.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Phillips County compares with Montana's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (101)

IRR - US 2

GREEN ACRES RD

US 2

S WAGNER ROAD

US 2

S 243

S 243

COUNTY ROAD 029

IRR - US 2

US 2

S 243

S 243

S 243

US 2

US 191

CREE CROSSING

S 363

US 2

US 2

US 2

UPPER HARB RD

MIDALE RD

US 191

OLD US HWY 2

ROAD 101

AUTO TOUR ROAD

1127: DRY FORK

LARB CREEK RD

AUTO TOUR ROAD

IRR - US 191

US 2

US 2

IRR - US 191

US 2

BLACK COULEE RD

STRATER RD

COUNTY RD 244

ALKALI RD

YOUTH RANCH RD

REGINA RD

HOG RANCH RD

LOWER HARB RD

IRR - US 191

STAGE RD

IRR - US 191

STAGE RD

REGINA RD

S 204-STAGE RD

IRR - US 2

STAGE RD

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