County profile · official public datasets

Austin County, TX

214 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 63.1% rated Good, 34.1% Fair, 2.8% Poor.

214
Public bridges: 63.1%
Good condition: 2.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Austin 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.

204th
of 247 on Poor share: 2.8%
Poor-condition share: 214
public highway bridges: 1992
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.

Austin County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Austin County ranks #204 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Austin County, Texas contains 214 public highway bridges. Roughly 63.1% are rated “Good,” 34.1% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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

214

Public highway bridges in Austin County

Good condition

63.1%

135 of 214 rated 7-9

Fair condition

34.1%

73 of 214 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.8%

6 of 214 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#204 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 214 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

63.1% (135)

Fair

34.1% (73)

Poor

2.8% (6)

Austin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 992 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 165 crossings a day against 8,846 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 214 of 214 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

23.8% of Austin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

51 of the 214 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 63.1% 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 34.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CHEW RD over DRAW, built 2004, carries 342 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 992 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

11
1930s

14
1950s

16
1960s

9
1970s

4
1980s

26
1990s

14
2000s

32
2010s

46
2020s

42

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 46 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1992, 12 years newer than the Texas average of 1980.

How Austin County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Texas counties nearest Austin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1992 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 20 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Austin County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Henderson County	216	43.1%	56.5%	0.5%	1978
Gregg County	214	37.9%	62.1%	0%	1972
Medina County	214	60.3%	37.9%	1.9%	1972
Austin County (this page)	214	63.1%	34.1%	2.8%	1992
Reeves County	213	52.6%	45.5%	1.9%	1966
Comanche County	212	45.3%	52.8%	1.9%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (214 bridges here).

Lee County, AL · 214 bridges
White County, IL · 214 bridges
White County, IN · 214 bridges
Lee County, IA · 214 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1992 here).

Johnson County, KS · avg 1992 · 781 bridges
Wake County, NC · avg 1992 · 760 bridges
Benton County, AR · avg 1992 · 410 bridges
Nodaway County, MO · avg 1992 · 396 bridges

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

All 214 Good 135 Fair 73 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (135)

Sort:

Austin County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Austin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 992 vehicle crossings a day

23.8% of Austin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 34.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Austin County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (135)

IH 10 WB ON RAMP

GEPHARDT RD/IH10FR

FM 529

FM 1458

FM 109

FM 109

FM 949

FM 949

FM 1093

FM 1456

FM 1456

FM 1094

FM 2429

FM 2754

FM 2187

PLUM CREEK RD

MALER RD

NEW BREMEN RD

LANGBERG RD

FM 3538

KLOPSTECK RD

NEWBERG RD

TEGELER RD

MILL CREEK RD

SHELBY RD

SH 159

SH 159

STAR HILL RD

POST OAK POINT RD

SHUPAK RD

NEW BREMEN RD

SHUNKA RD

SH 36 NB

SH 36 SB

SH 60

IH 10 ML

IH 10 EBFR

IH 10

IH 10

IH 10

IH 10 EB

IH 10

IH10FR/REXVILLE RD

IH 10

IH 10 EBFR

IH 10 WBFR

IH 10

IH 10 EBFR

IH 10 WBFR

BECKENDORFF RD

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