Total bridges
64
Public highway bridges in Starr County
County profile · official public datasets
Starr County, TX
64 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 70.3% rated Good, 26.6% Fair, 3.1% Poor.
- 64
- Public bridges
- 70.3%
- Good condition
- 3.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Starr 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.
- 214th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 3.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 64
- public highway bridges
- 1972
- 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.
Starr County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Starr County ranks #214 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.1%). Starr County, Texas contains 64 public highway bridges. Roughly 70.3% are rated “Good,” 26.6% “Fair,” and 3.1% “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.
Good condition
70.3%
45 of 64 rated 7-9
Fair condition
26.6%
17 of 64 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.1%
2 of 64 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#214 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 64 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 70.3% (45)
Fair 26.6% (17)
Poor 3.1% (2)
Starr County's Poor-condition bridges carry 200 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 100 crossings a day against 8,504 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 64 of 64 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
54.7% of Starr County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
35 of the 64 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 70.3% 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 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
LOMA BLANCA ROAD over LOS BARROSOS CREEK, built 1970, carries 100 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 200 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Starr County's bridges were built
64 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
11 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
11 bridges
- 1980s 3
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
13 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
7 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 13 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 8 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Starr County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Starr County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1966 is 6 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandera County | 67 | 59.7% | 38.8% | 1.5% | 1972 |
| Collingsworth County | 65 | 47.7% | 47.7% | 4.6% | 1974 |
| Starr County (this page) | 64 | 70.3% | 26.6% | 3.1% | 1972 |
| Blanco County | 63 | 60.3% | 39.7% | 0% | 1961 |
| McMullen County | 63 | 63.5% | 33.3% | 3.2% | 1969 |
| Menard County | 63 | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 1954 |
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 Starr 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 Starr County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (64 bridges here).
- Southeast Fairbanks County, AK · 64 bridges
- Delta County, CO · 64 bridges
- Sedgwick County, CO · 64 bridges
- Hancock County, GA · 64 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1972 here).
- Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
- Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
- Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
- York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.