Total bridges
331
Public highway bridges in Bowie County
County profile · official public datasets
331 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46.5% rated Good, 52.9% Fair, 0.6% Poor.
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Bowie County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
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.
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bowie County ranks #108 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.6%). Bowie County, Texas contains 331 public highway bridges. Roughly 46.5% are rated “Good,” 52.9% “Fair,” and 0.6% “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
331
Public highway bridges in Bowie County
Good condition
46.5%
154 of 331 rated 7-9
Fair condition
52.9%
175 of 331 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.6%
2 of 331 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#108 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Share of 331 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 180 crossings a day against 6,522 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 331 of 331 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
190 of the 331 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 46.5% 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.
SHERWOOD FOREST RD over AIKEN CREEK, built 1979, carries 309 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 359 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
331 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
1920–1929
9 bridges
1930–1939
6 bridges
1940–1949
24 bridges
1950–1959
36 bridges
1960–1969
72 bridges
1970–1979
67 bridges
1980–1989
25 bridges
1990–1999
29 bridges
2000–2009
26 bridges
2010–2019
34 bridges
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 72 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1975, 5 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
The 5 Texas counties nearest Bowie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 5 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker County | 350 | 49.7% | 49.1% | 1.1% | 1985 |
| Navarro County | 345 | 40.6% | 58.3% | 1.2% | 1979 |
| Galveston County | 344 | 57.6% | 39.5% | 2.9% | 1987 |
| Victoria County | 344 | 70.1% | 27.6% | 2.3% | 1979 |
| Bowie County (this page) | 331 | 46.5% | 52.9% | 0.6% | 1975 |
| Tom Green County | 310 | 61% | 38.4% | 0.6% | 1971 |
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 Bowie County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Bowie County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Nearest county inventories outside TX (331 bridges here).
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1975 here).
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Over: CREEK
E FORK OF ELLIOT CREEK, Bowie, TX
Over: ROCK CREEK
BTWN BASS WOOD/OLD BOSTON, Bowie, TX
Over: BIG CREEK
0.2 KM E. OF BLDG 2159, Bowie, TX
Over: IH 30
2.30 MI SW OF SH 98, Bowie, TX
Over: BOONE CREEK
2.30 MI E OF FM 991 W, Bowie, TX
Over: AIKEN CREEK RELIEF
0.25 MI W OF FM 991, Bowie, TX
Over: NETTLES CREEK
0.80 MI N OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: NETTLES CREEK RELIEF
0.90 MI N OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: ELLIOTT CREEK
2.20 MI N OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: RED BAYOU
1.30 MI W OF SH 98, Bowie, TX
Over: BIG CREEK
0.20 MI E OF SH 8, Bowie, TX
Over: SWAMPOODLE CREEK
0.20 MI W OF LOOP 14, Bowie, TX
Over: MEADE CREEK
2.20 MI N OF IH 30, Bowie, TX
Over: THOMPSON CREEK
3.10 MI S OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: SULPHUR RIVER RELIEF
4.90 MI S OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: SULPHUR RIVER
5.25 MI S OF US 67, Bowie, TX
Over: DRAW
1.60 MI S OF FM 561, Bowie, TX
Over: DOGWOOD CREEK
3.60 MI N OF FM 561, Bowie, TX
Over: WARD CREEK
2.90 MI S OF FM 44, Bowie, TX
Over: DRAW
2.20 MI S OF US 82, Bowie, TX
Over: BOOTHE CREEK
0.40 MI S OF FM 561, Bowie, TX
Over: DRAW
1.30 MI S OF US 82, Bowie, TX
Over: BEE SLOUGH
2.30 MI N OF IH 30, Bowie, TX
Over: HOWARD CREEK
0.65 MI NE OF US 59, Bowie, TX
Over: CAMPBELL CREEK
1.10 MI E OF SH 98, Bowie, TX
Over: BUTLER CREEK
0.50 MI E OF FM 990, Bowie, TX
Over: E FORK MISSILDINE CREEK
0.40 MI E OF FM 1840, Bowie, TX
Over: IH 30
4.30 MI SW OF FM 561, Bowie, TX
Over: WARD CREEK
1.10 MI W OF FM 44, Bowie, TX
Over: E FORK PANTHER CREEK
0.10 MI W OF FM 560, Bowie, TX
Over: W FORK RICE CREEK
0.20 MI E OF SH 98, Bowie, TX
Over: US 82
2.80 MI W OF SH 8, Bowie, TX
Over: RED BAYOU
0.50 MI W OF SH 8, Bowie, TX
Over: BRANDHAM CREEK
0.20 MI W OF SPUR 86, Bowie, TX
Over: COWHORN CREEK
0.40 MI W OF SH 93, Bowie, TX
Over: E FORK OF COWHORN CRK
0.50 MI NE OF SH 93, Bowie, TX
Over: WAGGONER CREEK
0.95 MI W OF US 59, Bowie, TX
Over: WAGGONER CREEK RELIEF
0.70 MI W OF US 59, Bowie, TX
Over: COWHORN CREEK TRIB
0.80 MI SW OF FM 1397, Bowie, TX
Over: WEST JONES CREEK
0.20 MI W OF SPUR 74, Bowie, TX
Over: E JONES CREEK
0.10 MI W OF FM 1398, Bowie, TX
Over: RAIN CREEK
0.10 MI W OF FM 2253, Bowie, TX
Over: RAIN CREEK
0.60 MI E OF FM 2253, Bowie, TX
Over: COWHORN CREEK
0.90 MI E OF FM 559, Bowie, TX
Over: DRAW
3.00 MI NW OF FM 1397, Bowie, TX
Over: COWHORN CREEK
0.90 MI NW OF SH 93, Bowie, TX
Over: BLACK BOTTOM CREEK
3.50 MI N OF IH 30, Bowie, TX
Over: DRAW
1.80 MI N OF IH 30, Bowie, TX
Over: MUD CREEK
1.80 MI N OF US 82, Bowie, TX
Over: HOLLY CREEK
5.70 MI N OF US 82, Bowie, TX
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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.