Total bridges
272
Public highway bridges in Hays County
County profile · official public datasets
Hays County, TX
272 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 79% rated Good, 20.6% Fair, 0.4% Poor.
- 272
- Public bridges
- 79%
- Good condition
- 0.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Hays 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 39%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 272
- public highway bridges
- 1996
- 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.
Hays County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hays County ranks #96 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.4%). Hays County, Texas contains 272 public highway bridges. Roughly 79% are rated “Good,” 20.6% “Fair,” and 0.4% “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.
Good condition
79%
215 of 272 rated 7-9
Fair condition
20.6%
56 of 272 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.4%
1 of 272 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#96 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 272 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 79% (215)
Fair 20.6% (56)
Poor 0.4% (1)
Hays County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,520 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 12,520 crossings a day against 12,906 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 272 of 272 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
21.7% of Hays County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
59 of the 272 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 79% 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 123 over BIG COTTONWOOD CREEK, built 1929, carries 12,520 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 12,520 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Hays County's bridges were built
272 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s 12
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 10
1950–1959
10 bridges
- 1960s 27
1960–1969
27 bridges
- 1970s 8
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s 4
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 1990s 23
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
58 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
80 bridges
- 2020s
2020–2029
41 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 80 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1996, 16 years newer than the Texas average of 1980.
How Hays County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Hays County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1996 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 21 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limestone County | 280 | 32.1% | 63.9% | 3.9% | 1975 |
| Rusk County | 280 | 24.6% | 75% | 0.4% | 1975 |
| Hays County (this page) | 272 | 79% | 20.6% | 0.4% | 1996 |
| Harrison County | 269 | 41.6% | 55.8% | 2.6% | 1972 |
| Wise County | 264 | 61.4% | 37.5% | 1.1% | 1989 |
| DeWitt County | 263 | 49.8% | 49% | 1.1% | 1962 |
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 Hays 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 Hays County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (272 bridges here).
- Rock Island County, IL · 272 bridges
- Berrien County, MI · 272 bridges
- Bolivar County, MS · 272 bridges
- Morton County, ND · 272 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1996 here).
- Clark County, NV · avg 1996 · 1,141 bridges
- Hamilton County, IN · avg 1996 · 454 bridges
- Jackson County, MS · avg 1996 · 268 bridges
- Douglas County, CO · avg 1996 · 263 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (215)
Cherrywood
GoodOver: Richmond Branch Trib
0.4 Mi S of Windy Hill Rd, Hays, TX
Built 2005 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,029
Founders Park Rd
GoodOver: Drainage Ditch
0.3 Mi E of RM 12, Hays, TX
Built 2020 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 600
Oyster Creek
GoodOver: Drainage Ditch
0.7 Mi W of RM 967, Hays, TX
Built 2007 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 200
Windy Hill Rd
GoodOver: Richmond Branch
0.6 Mi SE of IH 35, Hays, TX
Built 2022 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 13,900
LP 82
GoodOver: PURGATORY CREEK
0.6 MI N OF IH 35, Hays, TX
Built 1934 Load: 33.6 t ADT: 14,660
IH 35 ML
GoodOver: DRAW
1.2 MI N OF LOOP 4, Hays, TX
Built 1961 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 111,000
RM 3237
GoodOver: LONE MAN CREEK
4.1 MI E OF RM 12, Hays, TX
Built 1977 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 2,880
IH 35 SB ML
GoodOver: LP 82
0.9 MI N OF SH 80, Hays, TX
Built 1963 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 62,026
IH 35 NB ML
GoodOver: LP 82
0.9 MI N OF SH 80, Hays, TX
Built 1963 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 57,108
IH 35 SB ML
GoodOver: UPRR
0.2 MI N OF SH 80, Hays, TX
Built 1963 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 62,026
IH 35 NB ML
GoodOver: UPRR
0.2 MI N OF SH 80, Hays, TX
Built 1963 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 51,766
SH 21
GoodOver: BRUSHY CREEK
12.0 MI E OF IH 35, Hays, TX
Built 1984 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 8,327
RM 12
GoodOver: SOUTH ONION CREEK
3.6 MI S OF US 290, Hays, TX
Built 1979 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 5,666
RM 12
GoodOver: NORTH GATLIN CREEK
5.1 MI S OF US 290, Hays, TX
Built 1979 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 5,666
CULLEN BLVD
GoodOver: DRAIN
0.03 MI S OF FM 967, Hays, TX
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 200
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.