County profile · official public datasets

Erath County, TX

198 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.5% rated Good, 46% Fair, 0.5% Poor.

198
Public bridges: 53.5%
Good condition: 0.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Erath 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.

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.5%
Poor-condition share: 198
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Erath County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Erath County ranks #103 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.5%). Erath County, Texas contains 198 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.5% are rated “Good,” 46% “Fair,” and 0.5% “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

198

Public highway bridges in Erath County

Good condition

53.5%

106 of 198 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46%

91 of 198 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.5%

1 of 198 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#103 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 198 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53.5% (106)

Fair

46% (91)

Poor

0.5% (1)

Erath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,802 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry the same share of traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,802 crossings a day against 1,840 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 198 of 198 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.5% of Erath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

104 of the 198 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 53.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SH 220 over LITTLE DUFFAU CREEK, built 1942, carries 2,802 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,802 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

9
1930s

28
1940s

17
1950s

25
1960s

11
1970s

15
1980s

5
1990s

17
2000s

58
2010s

11
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 58 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 7 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Erath County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Erath 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 (this page)	198	53.5%	46%	0.5%	1973
Cherokee County	196	26%	74%	0%	1974
Houston County	196	41.3%	51.5%	7.1%	1984
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 Erath 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 Erath County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (198 bridges here).

Scott County, AR · 198 bridges
Fulton County, OH · 198 bridges
Madison County, OH · 198 bridges
Aiken County, SC · 198 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges

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

All 198 Good 106 Fair 91 Poor 1

All bridges (198)

Sort:

Erath County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Erath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,802 vehicle crossings a day

52.5% of Erath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Erath 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 (198)

SH 108

SH 108

SH 220

SH 220

FM 8

FM 8

FM 8

FM 914

FM 847

FM 219

FM 219

FM 219

FM 205

FM 205

FM 205

FM 2481

CR 300 - PCT 1

CR 341 - PCT 2

CR 351 - PCT 2

CR 417 - PCT 2

HARBIN DRIVE

US 281

SH 6

FM 2156

FM 2481

CR 491 - PCT 3

CR 226 - PCT 3

W FREY STREET

E. Long Street

FM 1189

FM 847

FM 1189

US 67 / US 377 NB

US 67 / US 377 SB

US 67 / US 377

US 67 / US 377

US 67 SB

US 67 NB

US 281

SH 6 WB

SH 108

SH 6

SH 6

SH 108

SH 108

SH 108

SH 108

SH 108

SH 108

FM 8

Related