Total bridges
63
Public highway bridges in McMullen County
County profile · official public datasets
McMullen County, TX
63 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 63.5% rated Good, 33.3% Fair, 3.2% Poor.
- 63
- Public bridges
- 63.5%
- Good condition
- 3.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
McMullen 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.
- 216th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 3.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 63
- 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.
McMullen County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McMullen County ranks #216 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.2%). McMullen County, Texas contains 63 public highway bridges. Roughly 63.5% are rated “Good,” 33.3% “Fair,” and 3.2% “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
63.5%
40 of 63 rated 7-9
Fair condition
33.3%
21 of 63 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.2%
2 of 63 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#216 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 63 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 63.5% (40)
Fair 33.3% (21)
Poor 3.2% (2)
McMullen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,409 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,705 crossings a day against 3,576 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 63 of 63 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
68.3% of McMullen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
43 of the 63 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 63.5% 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 59.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 16 over FRIO RIVER, built 1954, carries 4,389 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 7,409 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When McMullen County's bridges were built
63 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1940s
1940–1949
16 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
14 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
13 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 1
1990–1999
1 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1940s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 75 to 84 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 11 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How McMullen County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest McMullen County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.2% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1963 is 6 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collingsworth County | 65 | 47.7% | 47.7% | 4.6% | 1974 |
| Starr County | 64 | 70.3% | 26.6% | 3.1% | 1972 |
| Blanco County | 63 | 60.3% | 39.7% | 0% | 1961 |
| Menard County | 63 | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 1954 |
| McMullen County (this page) | 63 | 63.5% | 33.3% | 3.2% | 1969 |
| Foard County | 60 | 20% | 75% | 5% | 1954 |
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 McMullen 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 McMullen County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (63 bridges here).
- Highlands County, FL · 63 bridges
- Chattahoochee County, GA · 63 bridges
- Red River County, LA · 63 bridges
- Lincoln County, ME · 63 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 (2)
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.