County profile · official public datasets

Alfalfa County, OK

387 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 27.4% rated Good, 66.1% Fair, 6.5% Poor.

387
Public bridges: 27.4%
Good condition: 6.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

40th
of 77 on Poor share: 6.5%
Poor-condition share: 387
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Alfalfa County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Alfalfa County ranks #40 of 77 Oklahoma counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.5%). Alfalfa County, Oklahoma contains 387 public highway bridges. Roughly 27.4% are rated “Good,” 66.1% “Fair,” and 6.5% “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

387

Public highway bridges in Alfalfa County

Good condition

27.4%

106 of 387 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.1%

256 of 387 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.5%

25 of 387 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#40 of 77

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

Condition distribution

Share of 387 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

27.4% (106)

Fair

66.1% (256)

Poor

6.5% (25)

Alfalfa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,949 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 78 crossings a day against 641 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 387 of 387 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.3% of Alfalfa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

121 of the 387 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 27.4% 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 6.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

E0210 (0218C) over EAST CLAY CREEK, built 1999, carries 120 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 25-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,949 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

7
1930s

35
1940s

15
1950s

40
1960s

19
1970s

6
1980s

22
1990s

34
2000s

86
2010s

109
2020s

13

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 109 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1988, 11 years newer than the Oklahoma average of 1977.

How Alfalfa County compares with Oklahoma's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Oklahoma counties nearest Alfalfa County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 10 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 76 Oklahoma counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Alfalfa County and the 5 Oklahoma counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Muskogee County	398	37.7%	52.3%	10.1%	1971
Creek County	395	40.5%	38.7%	20.8%	1972
Alfalfa County (this page)	387	27.4%	66.1%	6.5%	1988
Custer County	384	73.2%	25.5%	1.3%	1982
Payne County	384	24%	65.6%	10.4%	1982
Stephens County	382	29.1%	68.1%	2.9%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OK (387 bridges here).

Delaware County, PA · 387 bridges
Calhoun County, AL · 386 bridges
Stanislaus County, CA · 386 bridges
Gibson County, TN · 386 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OK (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges
Vernon County, MO · avg 1988 · 401 bridges

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

All 387 Good 106 Fair 256 Poor 25

Fair-condition bridges (256)

Sort:

Alfalfa County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Alfalfa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,949 vehicle crossings a day

31.3% of Alfalfa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 6.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Alfalfa County compares with Oklahoma'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 (256)

E0270

E0220

E0220

S.H. 8

S.H. 8

S.H. 11

E0060

E0060

N2550

N2520

E0310

N2590

E0260

N2560

E0250

N2620

E0280

N2570

N2530

U.S. 64

N2550

N2610

E0070

E0050

N2730

E0040

N2630

FAS 0216

E0210

N2740

N2660

E0380

N2650

N2650

N2720

E0370

E0160

E0040

E0370 (FAS 0211)

N2620

E0270

E0260

N2660

E0020 (FAS 0224)

N2630

E0320

E0260

N2640

N2600

N2550

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