County profile · official public datasets

Milam County, TX

191 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.5% rated Good, 54.5% Fair, 1% Poor.

191
Public bridges: 44.5%
Good condition: 1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

133rd
of 247 on Poor share: 1%
Poor-condition share: 191
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Milam County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Milam County ranks #133 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1%). Milam County, Texas contains 191 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.5% are rated “Good,” 54.5% “Fair,” and 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

191

Public highway bridges in Milam County

Good condition

44.5%

85 of 191 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.5%

104 of 191 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2 of 191 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#133 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 191 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44.5% (85)

Fair

54.5% (104)

Poor

1% (2)

Milam County's Poor-condition bridges carry 716 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 358 crossings a day against 1,502 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 191 of 191 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

47.1% of Milam County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 191 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 44.5% 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 95.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FM 486 over LITTLE RIVER SLOUGH, built 1960, carries 686 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 716 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

10
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

34
1960s

37
1970s

9
1980s

23
1990s

20
2000s

24
2010s

18
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 37 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Texas average (1980).

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Milam County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Milam County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Erath County	198	53.5%	46%	0.5%	1973
Cherokee County	196	26%	74%	0%	1974
Houston County	196	41.3%	51.5%	7.1%	1984
Matagorda County	192	37.5%	55.7%	6.8%	1982
Milam County (this page)	191	44.5%	54.5%	1%	1979
Jim Wells County	186	56.5%	41.9%	1.6%	1969

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (191 bridges here).

Jay County, IN · 191 bridges
Ripley County, IN · 191 bridges
Atchison County, MO · 191 bridges
Pawnee County, NE · 191 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 191 Good 85 Fair 104 Poor 2

All bridges (191)

Sort:

Milam County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Milam County's Poor-condition bridges carry 716 vehicle crossings a day

47.1% of Milam County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 95.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Milam 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 (191)

US 79

FM 1915

FM 1915

FM 1915

FM 485

FM 485

FM 485

FM 485

FM 486

FM 908

FM 908

CR 278

CR 120

CR 106

CR 405

CR 429

CR 440

CR 440

CR 358

CR 264

CR 343

FM 486

FM 1444

CR 455

FM 486

FM 1444

CR 139 LP

CR 214

FM 485

CR 258

CR 267

CR 279

CR 273

CR 104

CR 304

CR 421

CR 230

CR 408

CR 353

CR 132

FM 486

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