County profile · official public datasets

Palo Pinto County, TX

237 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.8% rated Good, 57.8% Fair, 0.4% Poor.

237
Public bridges: 41.8%
Good condition: 0.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Palo Pinto County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 40%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.4%
Poor-condition share: 237
public highway bridges: 1962
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.

Palo Pinto County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Palo Pinto County ranks #99 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.4%). Palo Pinto County, Texas contains 237 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.8% are rated “Good,” 57.8% “Fair,” and 0.4% “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

237

Public highway bridges in Palo Pinto County

Good condition

41.8%

99 of 237 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.8%

137 of 237 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.4%

1 of 237 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#99 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 237 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.8% (99)

Fair

57.8% (137)

Poor

0.4% (1)

Palo Pinto County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,180 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,180 crossings a day against 1,484 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 237 of 237 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

80.2% of Palo Pinto County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

190 of the 237 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 41.8% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 180 over BRAZOS RIVER, built 1948, carries 3,180 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,180 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

24
1930s

29
1940s

32
1950s

22
1960s

25
1970s

61
1980s

3
1990s

7
2000s

20
2010s

11
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 61 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1962, 18 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Palo Pinto County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 17 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Palo Pinto County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lubbock County	242	45.9%	53.7%	0.4%	1988
Nacogdoches County	237	21.1%	73.4%	5.5%	1978
Palo Pinto County (this page)	237	41.8%	57.8%	0.4%	1962
San Patricio County	235	47.7%	50.6%	1.7%	1978
Eastland County	234	40.6%	58.1%	1.3%	1965
Montague County	234	47%	50.4%	2.6%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (237 bridges here).

Hawaii County, HI · 237 bridges
Winona County, MN · 237 bridges
DeKalb County, MO · 237 bridges
Boone County, NE · 237 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1962 here).

Berks County, PA · avg 1962 · 667 bridges
Bristol County, MA · avg 1962 · 384 bridges
Norfolk County, MA · avg 1962 · 343 bridges
Ottawa County, KS · avg 1962 · 295 bridges

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

All 237 Good 99 Fair 137 Poor 1

Fair-condition bridges (137)

Sort:

Palo Pinto County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Palo Pinto County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,180 vehicle crossings a day

80.2% of Palo Pinto County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Palo Pinto 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

Fair-condition bridges (137)

SH 254

SH 193

SH 254

SH 254

FM 4

FM 4

FM 4

FM 207

FM 919

FM 919

FM 1195

FM 52

FM 52

RM 2692

RM 2692

WITHERS RD PCT 3

WITHERS RD PCT 3

NATTY FLAT R PCT 4

BLUE FLAT RD PCT 3

MARTIN LTHR KNG JR

SE 15TH ST

SE 2ND AVE

900 BK SE 4TH AVE

SE 6TH AVE

SE 14TH AVE

SE 11TH AVE

SW 5TH STREET

SW 6TH STREET

MARTIN LUTHER KING

GRANT ROAD

IH 20 NFR

FM 4

BLUE FLAT/ PANAMA

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

CR 178 / BOSLEY RD

SH 16

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

IH 20 NFR

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

US 180

IH 20 WB

IH 20 EB

IH 20 WB

SH 16

SH 16

SH 16

Related