Total bridges
660
Public highway bridges in Bell County
County profile · official public datasets
Bell County, TX
660 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.7% rated Good, 45% Fair, 0.3% Poor.
- 660
- Public bridges
- 54.7%
- Good condition
- 0.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Bell County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.
- Top 37%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 660
- public highway bridges
- 1984
- 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.
Bell County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bell County ranks #92 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.3%). Bell County, Texas contains 660 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.7% are rated “Good,” 45% “Fair,” and 0.3% “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
54.7%
361 of 660 rated 7-9
Fair condition
45%
297 of 660 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.3%
2 of 660 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#92 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 660 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 54.7% (361)
Fair 45% (297)
Poor 0.3% (2)
Bell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,071 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,036 crossings a day against 14,031 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 660 of 660 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
34.4% of Bell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
227 of the 660 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 54.7% 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 94.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 95 over DARRS CREEK, built 1922, carries 5,733 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 6,071 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Bell County's bridges were built
660 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 23
1930–1939
23 bridges
- 1940s 18
1940–1949
18 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
51 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
90 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
127 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
59 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
86 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
63 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
125 bridges
- 2020s 11
2020–2029
11 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 127 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Texas average (1980).
How Bell County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Bell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso County | 783 | 54.4% | 44.8% | 0.8% | 1986 |
| McLennan County | 714 | 51.8% | 46.2% | 2% | 1980 |
| Montgomery County | 710 | 69.2% | 30.1% | 0.7% | 1998 |
| Ellis County | 691 | 53.3% | 45.2% | 1.6% | 1987 |
| Bell County (this page) | 660 | 54.7% | 45% | 0.3% | 1984 |
| Brazoria County | 618 | 62.8% | 34.8% | 2.4% | 1990 |
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 Bell 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 Bell County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (660 bridges here).
- Lancaster County, NE · 661 bridges
- Sumner County, KS · 659 bridges
- Salt Lake County, UT · 659 bridges
- Jefferson County, KY · 662 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1984 here).
- Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
- Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
- El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
- Steuben County, NY · avg 1984 · 627 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (660)
SH 201
GoodOver: NORTH REESE CREEK
2.10 MI W OF SH 195, Bell, TX
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 11,779
SH 201
GoodOver: NORTH REESE CREEK
1.00 MI W OF SH 195, Bell, TX
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 11,779
SH 201
GoodOver: NORTH REESE CREEK
0.40 MI W OF SH 195, Bell, TX
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 11,779
REEDS CEMETERY RD
GoodOver: KNOB CREEK
1.40 MI W OF FM 2184, Bell, TX
Built 2006 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 112
ROUND HALL ROAD
GoodOver: PENNINGTON BRANCH
1.10 MI S OF FM 2268, Bell, TX
Built 2002 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 100
MISSION TRAIL
GoodOver: MUSTANG CREEK #72
0.70 MI N OF LONG MEADOW, Bell, TX
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 586
SOUTH GRAY STREET
GoodOver: SOUTH NOLAN CREEK
0.10 MI S OF US 190 BU, Bell, TX
Built 1990 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 1,599
BOAZ MOUT SITE RD
GoodOver: UNKNOWN CREEK
BMF-32, Bell, TX
Built 2009 Load: 94.0 t ADT: 500
WEST CENTRAL AVE
PoorOver: NOLAN CREEK
0.10 MI W OF SH 317, Bell, TX
Built 1920 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 338
SH 95
PoorOver: DARRS CREEK
0.35 MI S OF FM 1123, Bell, TX
Built 1922 Load: 28.1 t ADT: 5,733
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.