County profile · official public datasets

Rusk County, TX

280 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 24.6% rated Good, 75% Fair, 0.4% Poor.

280
Public bridges: 24.6%
Good condition: 0.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Rusk 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 38%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.4%
Poor-condition share: 280
public highway bridges: 1975
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.

Rusk County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rusk County ranks #95 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.4%). Rusk County, Texas contains 280 public highway bridges. Roughly 24.6% are rated “Good,” 75% “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

280

Public highway bridges in Rusk County

Good condition

24.6%

69 of 280 rated 7-9

Fair condition

75%

210 of 280 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.4%

1 of 280 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#95 of 247

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

Condition distribution

Share of 280 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

24.6% (69)

Fair

75% (210)

Poor

0.4% (1)

Rusk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 60 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 60 crossings a day against 1,662 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 277 of 280 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

46.8% of Rusk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

131 of the 280 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 24.6% 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

CR 4238 over E FORK ANGELINA RL (N#2), built 1995, carries 60 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 60 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

12
1930s

30
1940s

18
1950s

34
1960s

32
1970s

14
1980s

18
1990s

39
2000s

63
2010s

18
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 63 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1975, 5 years older than the Texas average of 1980.

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

The 5 Texas counties nearest Rusk 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 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is 7 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Rusk County and the 5 Texas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Gonzales County	284	45.4%	51.8%	2.8%	1969
Cooke County	283	48.1%	49.1%	2.8%	1983
Bastrop County	282	66.3%	33.3%	0.4%	1988
Limestone County	280	32.1%	63.9%	3.9%	1975
Rusk County (this page)	280	24.6%	75%	0.4%	1975
Hays County	272	79%	20.6%	0.4%	1996

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TX (280 bridges here).

Grant County, IN · 280 bridges
Smith County, KS · 281 bridges
Logan County, OH · 281 bridges
Vanderburgh County, IN · 279 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1975 here).

San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges

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

All 280 Good 69 Fair 210 Poor 1

Fair-condition bridges (210)

Sort:

Rusk County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Rusk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 60 vehicle crossings a day

46.8% of Rusk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Rusk 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 (210)

CR 186

CR 2128

CR 3143

CR 4248

CR 4255

US 259 SB

CR 108

CR 1115

CR 2210

US 259 SB

CR 138

CR 3230

CR 133

CR 146

CR 313

CR 3122

CR 4194

CR 2210

CR 461

CR 447

US 259 NB

US 259 NB

US 259 NB

FM 225

CR 132

CR 162

CR 222

CR 254

CR 281

CR 333

CR 341

CR 343

CR 342

CR 346

CR 355

CR 374

CR 382

CR 382

CR 401

CR 445

CR 1115

CR 2116

CR 3153

CR 3196

CR 3196

CR 3198

CR 3206

CR 3216

CR 3227

CR 3227

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