Total bridges
142
Public highway bridges in Panola County
County profile · official public datasets
Panola County, TX
142 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40.8% rated Good, 56.3% Fair, 2.8% Poor.
- 142
- Public bridges
- 40.8%
- Good condition
- 2.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Panola 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.
- 207th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 2.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 142
- public highway bridges
- 1973
- 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.
Panola County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Panola County ranks #207 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Panola County, Texas contains 142 public highway bridges. Roughly 40.8% are rated “Good,” 56.3% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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
40.8%
58 of 142 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56.3%
80 of 142 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.8%
4 of 142 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#207 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 142 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40.8% (58)
Fair 56.3% (80)
Poor 2.8% (4)
Panola County's Poor-condition bridges carry 544 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 136 crossings a day against 3,717 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 142 of 142 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
53.5% of Panola County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
76 of the 142 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 40.8% 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 65.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CR 201 over HOGGS BAYOU, built 1995, carries 358 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 544 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Panola County's bridges were built
142 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s 8
1930–1939
8 bridges
- 1940s 9
1940–1949
9 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
29 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
13 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
18 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
27 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 7 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Panola County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Panola County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is 6 years newer.
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 |
| Ector County | 144 | 38.2% | 61.8% | 0% | 1974 |
| Howard County | 144 | 36.1% | 63.2% | 0.7% | 1974 |
| Karnes County | 144 | 43.8% | 54.9% | 1.4% | 1963 |
| Panola County (this page) | 142 | 40.8% | 56.3% | 2.8% | 1973 |
| Mitchell County | 140 | 32.9% | 66.4% | 0.7% | 1964 |
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 Panola 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 Panola County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (142 bridges here).
- Monroe County, AL · 142 bridges
- Henderson County, IL · 142 bridges
- Graham County, KS · 142 bridges
- Kenton County, KY · 142 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1973 here).
- Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
- Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
- Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
- Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (4)
CR 127
PoorOver: BRUSHY CREEK
2.0 MI SE OF FM 999, Panola, TX
Built 1997 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 102
CR 4354
PoorOver: Mc FADDEN CREEK
0.2 MI W OF FM 699, Panola, TX
Built 1995 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 9
CR 201
PoorOver: HOGGS BAYOU
0.5 MI S OF US 79, Panola, TX
Built 1995 Load: 35.4 t ADT: 358
CR 430
PoorOver: MC FADDEN CREEK TRIB
1.2 MI E OF FM 699, Panola, TX
Built 1993 Load: 35.4 t ADT: 75
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.