County profile · official public datasets

Howard County, TX

144 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.1% rated Good, 63.2% Fair, 0.7% Poor.

144
Public bridges: 36.1%
Good condition: 0.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Howard County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 46%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.7%
Poor-condition share: 144
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Howard County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Howard County ranks #113 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.7%). Howard County, Texas contains 144 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.1% are rated “Good,” 63.2% “Fair,” and 0.7% “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

144

Public highway bridges in Howard County

Good condition

36.1%

52 of 144 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.2%

91 of 144 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.7%

1 of 144 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#113 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 144 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

36.1% (52)

Fair

63.2% (91)

Poor

0.7% (1)

Howard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,098 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry the same share of traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,098 crossings a day against 4,174 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 144 of 144 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.8% of Howard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

99 of the 144 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 36.1% 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 350 over IH 20, built 1964, carries 6,098 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 6,098 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

10
1940s

3
1950s

42
1960s

40
1970s

8
1980s

7
1990s

2
2000s

3
2010s

13
2020s

16

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 42 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 6 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Howard County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Howard County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bosque County	145	45.5%	53.1%	1.4%	1959
Cass County	145	44.1%	55.9%	0%	1967
Fisher County	145	46.9%	48.3%	4.8%	1962
Ector County	144	38.2%	61.8%	0%	1974
Karnes County	144	43.8%	54.9%	1.4%	1963
Howard County (this page)	144	36.1%	63.2%	0.7%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (144 bridges here).

Muscatine County, IA · 144 bridges
Anderson County, KS · 144 bridges
Webster County, KY · 144 bridges
Muskegon County, MI · 144 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 144 Good 52 Fair 91 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (52)

Sort:

Howard County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Howard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,098 vehicle crossings a day

68.8% of Howard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Howard 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 (52)

US 87

IH 20

BUS 20 WB

BUS 20 EB

US 87

US 87

US 87

US 87

US 87 & EFR & WFR

SH 176

SH 350

SH 350

SH 350

SH 350

SH 350 NBFR

SH 350

SH 350

FM 818

FM 846

FM 846

FM 820

FM 821

FM 846

LONGSHORE RD

NICHOLS RD

FM 669

FM 2183

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

US 87 NBFR

US 87 SBFR

FM 2599

US 87 SB

US 87 SB

IH 20 WBML

IH 20 EBML

FM 700

US 87 SB

US 87 NB

US 87 NB

US 87 SB

US 87 NB

US 87 SB

US 87 NB

FM 700 WBFR Ramp N

BUS 87 SB Ramp U

US 87

US 87

US 87 TURNAROUND

FM 1785

Related