Total bridges
144
Public highway bridges in Karnes County
County profile · official public datasets
Karnes County, TX
144 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.8% rated Good, 54.9% Fair, 1.4% Poor.
- 144
- Public bridges
- 43.8%
- Good condition
- 1.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Karnes 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.
- 154th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 1.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 144
- public highway bridges
- 1963
- 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.
Karnes County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Karnes County ranks #154 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.4%). Karnes County, Texas contains 144 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.8% are rated “Good,” 54.9% “Fair,” and 1.4% “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.
Good condition
43.8%
63 of 144 rated 7-9
Fair condition
54.9%
79 of 144 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.4%
2 of 144 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#154 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 43.8% (63)
Fair 54.9% (79)
Poor 1.4% (2)
Karnes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 190 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 95 crossings a day against 2,348 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.
68.1% of Karnes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
98 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 43.8% 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 52.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CR 326 over SAN ANTONIO RIVER, built 1973, 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 190 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Karnes County's bridges were built
144 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
11 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
27 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
22 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
20 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
14 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
13 bridges
- 1980s 8
1980–1989
8 bridges
- 1990s 6
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 17 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Karnes County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Karnes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.4% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| 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 |
| Howard County | 144 | 36.1% | 63.2% | 0.7% | 1974 |
| Karnes County (this page) | 144 | 43.8% | 54.9% | 1.4% | 1963 |
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 Karnes 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 Karnes 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 (1963 here).
- Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
- Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
- Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
- Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (79)
CR 262
FairOver: ECLETO CREEK
0.60 MI W OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1980 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 55
CR 277
FairOver: JACK PUMP CREEK
2.45 MI NE OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1995 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 55
CR 289
FairOver: ELM CREEK
1.6 MI SE OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1976 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 55
CR 289
FairOver: JACK PUMP CREEK
1.8 MI SE OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1965 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 55
CR 295
FairOver: Ecleto Creek
2.2 Mi. NE of SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1990 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 40
CR 326
FairOver: ECLETO CREEK
1.55 MI W OF CR 336, Karnes, TX
Built 1976 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 198
FM 887
FairOver: ECLETO CREEK
0.4 MI SW OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1954 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 855
SH 123
FairOver: SAN ANTONIO RIVER
3.6 MI N OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 1939 Load: 29.9 t ADT: 3,174
FM 743
FairOver: HONDO CREEK
5.9 MI SE OF SH 72 BUS, Karnes, TX
Built 1949 Load: 29.9 t ADT: 135
FM 743
FairOver: HORD CREEK
1.0 MI S OF FM 2443, Karnes, TX
Built 1949 Load: 29.9 t ADT: 133
SH 123
FairOver: CIBOLO CREEK
4.20 MI N OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 1939 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 3,090
SH 72
FairOver: SAN ANTONIO RIVER
3.0 MI SW OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 1930 Load: 31.7 t ADT: 4,986
SH 123
FairOver: JACOBS CREEK
2.6 MI N OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 1939 Load: 31.7 t ADT: 3,006
FM 1020
FairOver: OJO DE AGUA CREEK
1.0 MI E OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 1953 Load: 31.7 t ADT: 124
SH 80
FairOver: ELM CREEK RELIEF
5.6 MI NE OF SH 119, Karnes, TX
Built 1930 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,011
SH 80
FairOver: ELM CREEK
5.5 MI NE OF SH 119, Karnes, TX
Built 1930 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,011
SH 80
FairOver: ECLETO CREEK
0.6 MI S OF FM 1354, Karnes, TX
Built 1930 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 4,872
SH 123
FairOver: DRY CREEK
0.1 MI S OF WILSON CO L, Karnes, TX
Built 1939 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,836
FM 887
FairOver: CIBOLO CREEK
1.0 MI W OF SH 123, Karnes, TX
Built 1986 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,434
CR 106
FairOver: DRAW
1.45 MI S OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 2006 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
CR 107
FairOver: DRAW
1.00 MI SE OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 2006 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 55
CR 207
FairOver: SAN ANTONIO RIVER
0.5 MI SE OF FM 791, Karnes, TX
Built 2002 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 242
CR 261
FairOver: RHYMES CREEK
0.10 MI S OF FM 887, Karnes, TX
Built 2007 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 55
CR 266
FairOver: ECLETO CREEK
0.5 MI W OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 2004 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 55
CR 290
FairOver: DRAW
0.90 MI SE OF SH 80, Karnes, TX
Built 2014 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
US 181
FairOver: ESCONDIDO CREEK
0.4 MI N OF SH 72, Karnes, TX
Built 1952 Load: 35.4 t ADT: 15,747
FM 99
FairOver: ESCONDIDO CREEK
2.9 MI SW OF US 181, Karnes, TX
Built 1967 Load: 37.2 t ADT: 2,711
FM 1020
FairOver: YATES CREEK
2.5 MI SE OF FM 81, Karnes, TX
Built 1953 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 124
FM 887
FairOver: MARCELINA CREEK
0.1 MI NE OF US 181, Karnes, TX
Built 1980 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 2,434
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.