County profile · official public datasets

Freestone County, TX

167 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.3% rated Good, 60.5% Fair, 1.2% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

167
Public bridges: 38.3%
Good condition: 1.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

144th
of 247 on Poor share: 1.2%
Poor-condition share: 167
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Freestone County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Freestone County ranks #144 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.2%). Freestone County, Texas contains 167 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.3% are rated “Good,” 60.5% “Fair,” and 1.2% “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

167

Public highway bridges in Freestone County

Good condition

38.3%

64 of 167 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.5%

101 of 167 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.2%

2 of 167 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#144 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 167 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.3% (64)

Fair

60.5% (101)

Poor

1.2% (2)

Freestone County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,307 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 654 crossings a day against 2,121 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 167 of 167 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.5% of Freestone County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

96 of the 167 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 38.3% 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 56.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FM 1580 over MIMS CREEK, built 1972, carries 742 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,307 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

12
1940s

5
1950s

20
1960s

11
1970s

46
1980s

11
1990s

11
2000s

21
2010s

23
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 46 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Texas average (1980).

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Freestone County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.2% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Freestone County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jackson County	170	50%	48.8%	1.2%	1975
Jones County	168	60.7%	37.5%	1.8%	1967
Hardin County	167	61.1%	38.3%	0.6%	1974
Freestone County (this page)	167	38.3%	60.5%	1.2%	1978
Nolan County	166	43.4%	54.2%	2.4%	1964
Red River County	163	44.2%	55.8%	0%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (167 bridges here).

Cherokee County, AL · 167 bridges
Garfield County, CO · 167 bridges
Mitchell County, IA · 167 bridges
Ness County, KS · 167 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 167 Good 64 Fair 101 Poor 2

Fair-condition bridges (101)

Sort:

Freestone County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Freestone County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,307 vehicle crossings a day

57.5% of Freestone County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 56.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Freestone 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 (101)

CR 481

CR 1080

CR 141

CR 601

US 84

US 84

US 84

SH 14

SH 75

US 79

SH 164

FM 488

IH 45

IH 45 WFR

IH 45 SB

IH 45 WFR

IH 45 SB

IH 45 NB

IH 45 WFR

IH 45 MLS

FM 1365

FM 1365

FM 1451

FM 80

CR 1100

FM 1451

CR 1021

CR 991

SH 164

SH 164

FM 27

FM 27

FM 27

FM 27

FM 27

FM 489

FM 489

FM 489

FM 489

FM 833

US 287

SH 75

SH 164

SH 164

SH 75

CR 971

SH 75

SH 75

SH 75

IH 45 NB

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