County profile · official public datasets

Cherokee County, TX

196 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26% rated Good, 74% Fair, 0% Poor.

196
Public bridges: 26%
Good condition: 0%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cherokee County pairs a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 3%
lowest Poor share in state: 0%
Poor-condition share: 196
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Cherokee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cherokee County ranks #7 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Cherokee County, Texas contains 196 public highway bridges. Roughly 26% are rated “Good,” 74% “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.

Total bridges

196

Public highway bridges in Cherokee County

Good condition

26%

51 of 196 rated 7-9

Fair condition

74%

145 of 196 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0 of 196 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 196 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

26% (51)

Fair

74% (145)

Poor

0% (0)

56.1% of Cherokee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

110 of the 196 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 26% 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.

1920s

2
1930s

22
1940s

12
1950s

32
1960s

29
1970s

17
1980s

9
1990s

24
2000s

30
2010s

9
2020s

10

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 6 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Cherokee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cherokee County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Coryell County	204	54.4%	45.1%	0.5%	1971
Erath County	198	53.5%	46%	0.5%	1973
Houston County	196	41.3%	51.5%	7.1%	1984
Cherokee County (this page)	196	26%	74%	0%	1974
Matagorda County	192	37.5%	55.7%	6.8%	1982
Milam County	191	44.5%	54.5%	1%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (196 bridges here).

Page County, IA · 196 bridges
Wilkin County, MN · 196 bridges
Sampson County, NC · 196 bridges
Mifflin County, PA · 196 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 196 Good 51 Fair 145 Poor 0

Good-condition bridges (51)

Sort:

Cherokee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

56.1% of Cherokee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

How Cherokee 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 (51)

SH 21

US 84

US 84

US 69

FM 752

FM 347

FM 1248

FM 1248

SH 204

FM 343

FM 856

FM 856

FM 1247

FM 2274

FM 2750

FULTON ST

M L KING DR

HOSPITAL ST

FM 855

CR 1701 Taylors Rd

SH 294

US 69

US 69 NB

US 79

SH 135

SH 135

SH 135

SH 204

SH 204

FM 22

FM 22

FM 22

FM 346

SL 456

CR 1302

CR 1504

CR 1707

CR 1714

CR 1807

CR 2107

CR 2112

CR 2206

CR 2303

CR 2614

CR 2905

CR 3203

CR 3802

WESLEY AVENUE

CR 1512

CR 1509

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