County profile · official public datasets

Dallas County, TX

3,230 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.5% rated Good, 56.4% Fair, 1% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

3,230
Public bridges: 42.5%
Good condition: 1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Dallas County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

132nd
of 247 on Poor share: 1%
Poor-condition share: 3,230
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Dallas County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Dallas County ranks #132 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1%). Dallas County, Texas contains 3,230 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.5% are rated “Good,” 56.4% “Fair,” and 1% “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

3,230

Public highway bridges in Dallas County

Good condition

42.5%

1,374 of 3,230 rated 7-9

Fair condition

56.4%

1,823 of 3,230 rated 5-6

Poor condition

33 of 3,230 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#132 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 3,230 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.5% (1,374)

Fair

56.4% (1,823)

Poor

1% (33)

Dallas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,373,701 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 41,627 crossings a day against 20,944 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 3,230 of 3,230 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

41.4% of Dallas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

1,338 of the 3,230 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 42.5% 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.

One structure carries 14.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IH 35E over Oak Lawn Ave & Turtle Ck, built 1959, carries 194,462 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 33-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,373,701 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

7
1920s

12
1930s

62
1940s

58
1950s

232
1960s

570
1970s

619
1980s

411
1990s

321
2000s

433
2010s

425
2020s

78

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 619 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 (1983) matches the Texas average (1980).

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Dallas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1989 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Dallas County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Harris County	4,029	50.7%	48.7%	0.6%	1989
Dallas County (this page)	3,230	42.5%	56.4%	1%	1983
Tarrant County	2,617	58.2%	41.4%	0.4%	1990
Bexar County	2,342	55%	44.7%	0.3%	1983
Travis County	1,544	63.9%	35.9%	0.2%	1988
Williamson County	1,170	67.4%	32.2%	0.3%	1995

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (3,230 bridges here).

Los Angeles County, CA · 3,547 bridges
Maricopa County, AZ · 2,847 bridges
Cook County, IL · 1,721 bridges
San Diego County, CA · 1,632 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1983 here).

Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges
Bernalillo County, NM · avg 1983 · 496 bridges
Black Hawk County, IA · avg 1983 · 489 bridges

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

All 3,230 Good 1,374 Fair 1,823 Poor 33

All bridges (3,230)

Sort:

Dallas County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Dallas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,373,701 vehicle crossings a day

41.4% of Dallas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 14.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Dallas 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

All bridges (3,230)

SH 310 NB OFF RAMP

IH 45 NB On Ramp

IH 45 SB

IH 45 NB Ramp B

IH45 SB to LP12 WB

IH 45 NB to Lamar

IH 45 SB Conn

IH 45 SB ON RAMP

US175/IH45NB CON A

IH 45 SB ON RAMP

IH 45 NB OFF RAMP

SH 183

SH 183 WB FR

SH 183 WBML

SH183 EB Collector

SH183EB-LP12NB CON

SH 183 WB Off-Ramp

Loop 12 SH 183 Exp

SH 183 EB

SH 183 WB

SH 183 WB Off-Ramp

SH 183 EBML & EBGP

SH 183 WB GP

SH 183 EB

SH 183 WB

Spur 482 NB

SH 183 EBML

SH 183 WB

SH 183 EBFR

SH 183 WBFR

SH 183 EB

SH 183 WB

SH 183 WB Managed

SH 183 EB

SH 183

Esters Road

SH 183 WBFR

SH 183 WBFR

US 183 WBFR Ramp

SH 183 EBFR Ramp

Loop 12 NBFR

LP 12 SBFR

SH 183

SH 183 EB Toll

SH 183

SH 183 WB Toll

SH 183 EB

SH 183 WB

SH 183 WB

SH 183 WB On-Ramp

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