Total bridges
186
Public highway bridges in Jim Wells County
County profile · official public datasets
Jim Wells County, TX
186 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.5% rated Good, 41.9% Fair, 1.6% Poor.
- 186
- Public bridges
- 56.5%
- Good condition
- 1.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Jim Wells County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- 165th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 1.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 186
- public highway bridges
- 1969
- 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.
Jim Wells County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jim Wells County ranks #165 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.6%). Jim Wells County, Texas contains 186 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.5% are rated “Good,” 41.9% “Fair,” and 1.6% “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
56.5%
105 of 186 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.9%
78 of 186 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.6%
3 of 186 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#165 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 186 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 56.5% (105)
Fair 41.9% (78)
Poor 1.6% (3)
Jim Wells County's Poor-condition bridges carry 165 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 55 crossings a day against 4,678 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 186 of 186 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
53.8% of Jim Wells County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
100 of the 186 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 56.5% 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 33.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CR 308 over AGUA DULCE CREEK, built 1940, carries 55 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 165 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Jim Wells County's bridges were built
186 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
28 bridges
- 1930s 13
1930–1939
13 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
23 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
21 bridges
- 1960s 7
1960–1969
7 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
19 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
34 bridges
- 2000s 4
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 9
2010–2019
9 bridges
- 2020s 12
2020–2029
12 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 11 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Jim Wells County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Jim Wells County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 10 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matagorda County | 192 | 37.5% | 55.7% | 6.8% | 1982 |
| Milam County | 191 | 44.5% | 54.5% | 1% | 1979 |
| Jim Wells County (this page) | 186 | 56.5% | 41.9% | 1.6% | 1969 |
| Angelina County | 183 | 45.4% | 54.6% | 0% | 1978 |
| Potter County | 181 | 47.5% | 48.1% | 4.4% | 1984 |
| Jasper County | 179 | 44.7% | 53.1% | 2.2% | 1973 |
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 Jim Wells 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 Jim Wells County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (186 bridges here).
- Fayette County, AL · 186 bridges
- Adams County, IA · 186 bridges
- Marion County, MO · 186 bridges
- Coshocton County, OH · 186 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1969 here).
- Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
- Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
- Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
- Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
CR 440
PoorOver: TRANQUITAS CREEK
0.15 MI W OF CR 465, Jim Wells, TX
Built 1940 Load: 11.8 t ADT: 55
CR 440
PoorOver: SAN ANDREAS CREEK
1.50 MI W OF CR 465, Jim Wells, TX
Built 1940 Load: 11.8 t ADT: 55
CR 308
PoorOver: AGUA DULCE CREEK
1.10 MI S OF FM 624, Jim Wells, TX
Built 1940 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 55
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.