County profile · official public datasets

Bandera County, TX

67 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 59.7% rated Good, 38.8% Fair, 1.5% Poor.

67
Public bridges: 59.7%
Good condition: 1.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bandera 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.

160th
of 247 on Poor share: 1.5%
Poor-condition share: 67
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.

Bandera County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bandera County ranks #160 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Bandera County, Texas contains 67 public highway bridges. Roughly 59.7% are rated “Good,” 38.8% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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

Public highway bridges in Bandera County

Good condition

59.7%

40 of 67 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.8%

26 of 67 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.5%

1 of 67 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#160 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 67 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

59.7% (40)

Fair

38.8% (26)

Poor

1.5% (1)

Bandera County's Poor-condition bridges carry 145 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 145 crossings a day against 3,567 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 67 of 67 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

53.7% of Bandera County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

36 of the 67 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 59.7% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

PATTERSON STREET over MEDINA RIVER, built 1940, carries 145 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 145 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

4
1940s

6
1950s

5
1960s

15
1970s

11
1980s

15
1990s

1
2000s

8
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 8 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Bandera County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bandera County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Morris County	70	30%	70%	0%	1971
Swisher County	69	39.1%	60.9%	0%	1975
Donley County	68	44.1%	48.5%	7.4%	1957
Mills County	68	48.5%	48.5%	2.9%	1958
Bandera County (this page)	67	59.7%	38.8%	1.5%	1972
Collingsworth County	65	47.7%	47.7%	4.6%	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 Bandera 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 Bandera County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (67 bridges here).

Okeechobee County, FL · 67 bridges
Stephens County, GA · 67 bridges
Garrard County, KY · 67 bridges
Emmons County, ND · 67 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (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 67 Good 40 Fair 26 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (40)

Sort:

Bandera County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bandera County's Poor-condition bridges carry 145 vehicle crossings a day

53.7% of Bandera County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bandera 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 (40)

SH 16

FM 337

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 173

SH 173

SH 173

FM 187

FM 187

FM 462

FM 2828

FM 2828

FM 2828

FM 1283

FM 1077

FM 1283

FM 470

FM 470

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

RM 187

RM 187

RM 337

ELM CREEK ROAD

BEAR CREEK ROAD

FIRST STREET

SH 16

SCHMIDTKE RD.

SH 173

SH 173

FM 337

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