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.

Total bridges

272

Public highway bridges in Hays County

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.

1910s

1
1920s

3
1930s

12
1940s

5
1950s

10
1960s

27
1970s

8
1980s

4
1990s

23
2000s

58
2010s

80
2020s

41

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.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hays County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
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.

All 272 Good 215 Fair 56 Poor 1

All bridges (272)

Sort:

Hays County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hays County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,520 vehicle crossings a day

21.7% of Hays County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Hays 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 (272)

IH35 N T/A @FM1626

CR 132 / CR 133

IH 35 SB FR

IH 35 SB ML

IH 35 NB ML

IH35 S T/A @FM2001

IH35 S T/A @CR 132

IH35 S T/A @FM1626

IH 35 N T/A @FM150

IH 35 S T/A @FM150

IH 35 NT/A@ CR 159

CR 159(YARRINGTON)

IH 35 ST/A@ CR 159

IH 35 NB OFF-RP

IH 35 NBFR

IH 35 ML

IH 35 ML

IH 35 ML

IH 35 ML

IH 35 ML

IH 35 ML

IH35 NBFR

IH 35 SBFR

IH35 NBFR

IH 35 SBFR

IH 35 NB

LP 82 -AQUA.SPR.DR

RM 12

RM 12

RM 12

SH 80

LP 82

SH 123 NB

SH 123 SB

FM 110

FM 110

FM 110

SH 80

SH 21

SH 21

RM 12

RM 150

FM 1626

FM 1626

FM 1626 SB

FM 1626 NB

FM 1626

FM 1626

RM 967

FM 2439

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