County profile · official public datasets

Ector County, TX

144 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.2% rated Good, 61.8% Fair, 0% Poor.

144
Public bridges: 38.2%
Good condition: 0%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ector County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 6%
lowest Poor share in state: 0%
Poor-condition share: 144
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.

Ector County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ector County ranks #16 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Ector County, Texas contains 144 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.2% are rated “Good,” 61.8% “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

144

Public highway bridges in Ector County

Good condition

38.2%

55 of 144 rated 7-9

Fair condition

61.8%

89 of 144 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0 of 144 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 144 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.2% (55)

Fair

61.8% (89)

Poor

0% (0)

64.6% of Ector County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

93 of the 144 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 38.2% 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.

1930s

2
1940s

3
1950s

9
1960s

66
1970s

21
1980s

20
1990s

9
2000s

10
2010s

1
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 66 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 45.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 6 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Ector 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 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ector County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bosque County	145	45.5%	53.1%	1.4%	1959
Cass County	145	44.1%	55.9%	0%	1967
Fisher County	145	46.9%	48.3%	4.8%	1962
Howard County	144	36.1%	63.2%	0.7%	1974
Karnes County	144	43.8%	54.9%	1.4%	1963
Ector County (this page)	144	38.2%	61.8%	0%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (144 bridges here).

Muscatine County, IA · 144 bridges
Anderson County, KS · 144 bridges
Webster County, KY · 144 bridges
Muskegon County, MI · 144 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 144 Good 55 Fair 89 Poor 0

Fair-condition bridges (89)

Sort:

Ector County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

64.6% of Ector County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

How Ector 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

Fair-condition bridges (89)

BUS 20 WB

BUS 20 NFR

FM 866

FM 1053

IH 20

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

CRANE AVENUE

JBS Parkway

BI 20 E Connector

BI 20 E CONN

IH 20

SH 158

FM 1936

W LOOP 338 SB

W LOOP 338 NB

SH 302/LP 338 SB

SH 302/LP 338 NB

LP 338

SH 191 WB

SH 191 EB

SH 191 WB

SH 191 EB

BILLY HEXT RD

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

CRANE AVE

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

BUS 20 EB

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 EB

MURPHY ST

Related