County profile · official public datasets

El Paso County, TX

783 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.4% rated Good, 44.8% Fair, 0.8% Poor.

783
Public bridges: 54.4%
Good condition: 0.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

El Paso County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 50%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.8%
Poor-condition share: 783
public highway bridges: 1986
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.

El Paso County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, El Paso County ranks #124 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.8%). El Paso County, Texas contains 783 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.4% are rated “Good,” 44.8% “Fair,” and 0.8% “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

783

Public highway bridges in El Paso County

Good condition

54.4%

426 of 783 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.8%

351 of 783 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.8%

6 of 783 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#124 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 783 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.4% (426)

Fair

44.8% (351)

Poor

0.8% (6)

El Paso County's Poor-condition bridges carry 37,097 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,183 crossings a day against 15,845 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 783 of 783 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.1% of El Paso County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

306 of the 783 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 54.4% 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 62.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 85 EB over RIO GRANDE RIVER, built 1957, carries 23,118 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 37,097 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

5
1930s

17
1940s

13
1950s

68
1960s

121
1970s

126
1980s

75
1990s

79
2000s

76
2010s

158
2020s

44

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 158 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1986, 6 years newer than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest El Paso County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 against a peer-group mean of 1989 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for El Paso County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Fort Bend County	795	72.8%	24.7%	2.5%	1998
El Paso County (this page)	783	54.4%	44.8%	0.8%	1986
McLennan County	714	51.8%	46.2%	2%	1980
Montgomery County	710	69.2%	30.1%	0.7%	1998
Ellis County	691	53.3%	45.2%	1.6%	1987
Bell County	660	54.7%	45%	0.3%	1984

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (783 bridges here).

Baltimore County, MD · 783 bridges
Hamilton County, OH · 783 bridges
Johnson County, KS · 781 bridges
Fulton County, GA · 775 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1986 here).

Caddo County, LA · avg 1986 · 682 bridges
Weld County, CO · avg 1986 · 614 bridges
Polk County, IA · avg 1986 · 545 bridges
Canadian County, OK · avg 1986 · 493 bridges

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

All 783 Good 426 Fair 351 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (426)

Sort:

El Paso County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

El Paso County's Poor-condition bridges carry 37,097 vehicle crossings a day

39.1% of El Paso County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 62.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How El Paso 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 (426)

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