Total bridges
63
Public highway bridges in Blanco County
County profile · official public datasets
Blanco County, TX
63 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 60.3% rated Good, 39.7% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 63
- Public bridges
- 60.3%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Blanco County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 18%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 63
- public highway bridges
- 1961
- 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.
Blanco County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Blanco County ranks #44 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Blanco County, Texas contains 63 public highway bridges. Roughly 60.3% are rated “Good,” 39.7% “Fair,” and 0% “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
60.3%
38 of 63 rated 7-9
Fair condition
39.7%
25 of 63 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 63 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#44 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 63 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 60.3% (38)
Fair 39.7% (25)
Poor 0% (0)
79.4% of Blanco County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
50 of the 63 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 60.3% 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.
When Blanco County's bridges were built
63 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 6
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
23 bridges
- 1970s 7
1970–1979
7 bridges
- 1980s 3
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 2000s 2
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 36.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1961, 19 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Blanco County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Blanco County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1961 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collingsworth County | 65 | 47.7% | 47.7% | 4.6% | 1974 |
| Starr County | 64 | 70.3% | 26.6% | 3.1% | 1972 |
| McMullen County | 63 | 63.5% | 33.3% | 3.2% | 1969 |
| Menard County | 63 | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 1954 |
| Blanco County (this page) | 63 | 60.3% | 39.7% | 0% | 1961 |
| Foard County | 60 | 20% | 75% | 5% | 1954 |
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 Blanco 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 Blanco County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (63 bridges here).
- Highlands County, FL · 63 bridges
- Chattahoochee County, GA · 63 bridges
- Red River County, LA · 63 bridges
- Lincoln County, ME · 63 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1961 here).
- Westchester County, NY · avg 1961 · 774 bridges
- Tehama County, CA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
- Berkshire County, MA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
- Schuylkill County, PA · avg 1961 · 368 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (0)
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.