County profile · official public datasets

Nolan County, TX

166 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.4% rated Good, 54.2% Fair, 2.4% Poor.

166
Public bridges: 43.4%
Good condition: 2.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Nolan 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.

193rd
of 247 on Poor share: 2.4%
Poor-condition share: 166
public highway bridges: 1964
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.

Nolan County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Nolan County ranks #193 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.4%). Nolan County, Texas contains 166 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.4% are rated “Good,” 54.2% “Fair,” and 2.4% “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.

Total bridges

166

Public highway bridges in Nolan County

Good condition

43.4%

72 of 166 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.2%

90 of 166 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.4%

4 of 166 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#193 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 166 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.4% (72)

Fair

54.2% (90)

Poor

2.4% (4)

Nolan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,246 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,562 crossings a day against 4,743 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 166 of 166 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

74.1% of Nolan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

123 of the 166 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 43.4% 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 53.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SH 70 / BUS 20 over IH 20 WB, built 1961, carries 5,510 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 10,246 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

12
1930s

10
1940s

12
1950s

48
1960s

41
1980s

17
1990s

10
2000s

8
2010s

6
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1964, 16 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Nolan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.4% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 12 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Nolan County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jones County	168	60.7%	37.5%	1.8%	1967
Freestone County	167	38.3%	60.5%	1.2%	1978
Hardin County	167	61.1%	38.3%	0.6%	1974
Nolan County (this page)	166	43.4%	54.2%	2.4%	1964
Red River County	163	44.2%	55.8%	0%	1975
Walker County	163	46%	53.4%	0.6%	1984

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (166 bridges here).

Clay County, IL · 166 bridges
Trego County, KS · 166 bridges
Bay County, MI · 166 bridges
Pontotoc County, MS · 166 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1964 here).

Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges

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

All 166 Good 72 Fair 90 Poor 4

Good-condition bridges (72)

Sort:

Nolan County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Nolan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,246 vehicle crossings a day

74.1% of Nolan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 53.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Nolan 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 (72)

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 ML & NFR

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 ML & NFR

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 SFR

US 84

FM 1809

FM 1544

CR 216

CR 221

CR 265

IH 20 WB

IH 20 WB

FM 608

FM 608

SH 70 BUS

FM 1856

SH 153

SH 153

SH 153

SH 153

FM 1170

FM 1170

FM 1170

FM 2319

FM 2319

FM 2319

FM 2319

FM 2035

9TH ST

IH 20 EB

SH 70 BUS

AVE A

IH 20 NFR

IH 20 NFR

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 NFR

IH 20 NFR

IH 20 SFR

IH 20 NFR

US 84 EB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

IH 20 WBML

IH 20 EBML

SH 70 / BUS 20 CON

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