County profile · official public datasets

Hill County, TX

405 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41% rated Good, 58% Fair, 1% Poor.

405
Public bridges: 41%
Good condition: 1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

131st
of 247 on Poor share: 1%
Poor-condition share: 405
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Hill County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hill County ranks #131 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1%). Hill County, Texas contains 405 public highway bridges. Roughly 41% are rated “Good,” 58% “Fair,” and 1% “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

405

Public highway bridges in Hill County

Good condition

41%

166 of 405 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58%

235 of 405 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4 of 405 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#131 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 405 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41% (166)

Fair

58% (235)

Poor

1% (4)

Hill County's Poor-condition bridges carry 290 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 73 crossings a day against 6,017 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 405 of 405 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43% of Hill County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

174 of the 405 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 41% 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 34.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 3323 over ASH CREEK BRANCH, built 2002, carries 100 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 290 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

7
1930s

16
1940s

46
1950s

54
1960s

47
1970s

14
1980s

20
1990s

17
2000s

84
2010s

65
2020s

34

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 84 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Texas average (1980).

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Hill County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hill County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Smith County	427	47.1%	51.5%	1.4%	1981
Taylor County	419	45.1%	54.2%	0.7%	1967
Hidalgo County	405	47.4%	51.6%	1%	1990
Hill County (this page)	405	41%	58%	1%	1982
Johnson County	404	49.5%	50.5%	0%	1985
Wichita County	399	41.4%	57.9%	0.8%	1971

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (405 bridges here).

Coconino County, AZ · 405 bridges
Pottawatomie County, OK · 408 bridges
Marshall County, KS · 402 bridges
Cuming County, NE · 402 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1982 here).

Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges

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

All 405 Good 166 Fair 235 Poor 4

Good-condition bridges (166)

Sort:

Hill County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hill County's Poor-condition bridges carry 290 vehicle crossings a day

43% of Hill County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 34.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hill 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 (166)

CR 3424 W

FM 308

FM 1243

IH 35W

IH 35 ML & NBFR

SH 22

SH 31

FM 933

SH 171

SH 171

SH 171

SH 171

FM 67

FM 67

FM 67

FM 67

FM 67

FM 67

FM 67

FM 934

FM 744

FM 1304

FM 2114

FM 2114

FM 2488

FM 2959

CR 4149

COVINGTON ST

HAWKINS ST

MILFORD ST

IH 35W

FM 934

FM 934

FM 1534

CR 3350 N

CR 3320

CR 1330

CR 2431

CR 1439

ABBOTT ST

MORGAN ST

FM 1243

CR 3322 LP

CR 4224

CR 3124

CR 2340

CR 1313

CR 2234

CR 3350

CR 2101

Related