County profile · official public datasets

Houston County, TX

196 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.3% rated Good, 51.5% Fair, 7.1% Poor.

196
Public bridges: 41.3%
Good condition: 7.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

246th
of 247 on Poor share: 7.1%
Poor-condition share: 196
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Houston County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Houston County ranks #246 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Houston County, Texas contains 196 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.3% are rated “Good,” 51.5% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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

196

Public highway bridges in Houston County

Good condition

41.3%

81 of 196 rated 7-9

Fair condition

51.5%

101 of 196 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.1%

14 of 196 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#246 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 196 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.3% (81)

Fair

51.5% (101)

Poor

7.1% (14)

Houston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,112 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 365 crossings a day against 635 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 196 of 196 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

34.2% of Houston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

67 of the 196 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 41.3% 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 40.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SH 7 over TRINITY RIVER, built 1957, carries 2,084 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 5,112 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

10
1930s

13
1940s

2
1950s

20
1960s

20
1970s

8
1980s

20
1990s

30
2000s

37
2010s

17
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 37 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Texas average (1980).

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Houston County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 8 years newer.

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

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (196 bridges here).

Page County, IA · 196 bridges
Wilkin County, MN · 196 bridges
Sampson County, NC · 196 bridges
Mifflin County, PA · 196 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Steuben County, NY · avg 1984 · 627 bridges

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

All 196 Good 81 Fair 101 Poor 14

All bridges (196)

Sort:

US 287

Fair

Over: EAST FORK CREEK

1.50 MI SE OF FM 232, Houston, TX

Houston County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Houston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,112 vehicle crossings a day

34.2% of Houston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 40.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Houston 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 (196)

US 287

STREAM

STREAM

ARMSTRONG CREEK-Br

CR 2126

SH 21

SH 21

SH 7

FM 229

FM 228

FM 228

FM 1272

FM 1280

FM 227

FM 227

FM 227

FM 227

FM 227

FM 357

FM 1280

FM 2663

FM 232

SH 21

SH 21

SH 7

SH 7

SH 7

SH 7

FM 229

FM 228

FM 228

FM 228

FM 228

FM 230

FM 230

FM 1280

FM 227

FM 227

FM 227

FM 227

FM 231

FM 231

FM 357

FM 357

FM 1280

FM 1733

FM 1733

FM 2022

FM 2022

FM 2022

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