Total bridges
115
Public highway bridges in Stephens County
County profile · official public datasets
Stephens County, TX
115 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.1% rated Good, 60% Fair, 0.9% Poor.
- 115
- Public bridges
- 39.1%
- Good condition
- 0.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Stephens 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.
- 128th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 0.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 115
- 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.
Stephens County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stephens County ranks #128 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.9%). Stephens County, Texas contains 115 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.1% are rated “Good,” 60% “Fair,” and 0.9% “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
39.1%
45 of 115 rated 7-9
Fair condition
60%
69 of 115 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.9%
1 of 115 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#128 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 115 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 39.1% (45)
Fair 60% (69)
Poor 0.9% (1)
Stephens County's Poor-condition bridges carry 50 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 50 crossings a day against 714 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 115 of 115 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
73.9% of Stephens County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
85 of the 115 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 39.1% 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 146 over GONZALES CREEK, built 1981, carries 50 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 50 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Stephens County's bridges were built
115 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
19 bridges
- 1930s 6
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
12 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
27 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
17 bridges
- 1970s 5
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 7
1980–1989
7 bridges
- 1990s 6
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s 5
2000–2009
5 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1962, 18 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Stephens County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Stephens County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McCulloch County | 118 | 46.6% | 53.4% | 0% | 1958 |
| Hall County | 117 | 35% | 62.4% | 2.6% | 1969 |
| Stephens County (this page) | 115 | 39.1% | 60% | 0.9% | 1962 |
| Brewster County | 114 | 41.2% | 58.8% | 0% | 1957 |
| Val Verde County | 113 | 52.2% | 47.8% | 0% | 1966 |
| Kendall County | 112 | 55.4% | 44.6% | 0% | 1975 |
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 Stephens 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 Stephens County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (115 bridges here).
- Alachua County, FL · 115 bridges
- Walton County, GA · 115 bridges
- Latah County, ID · 115 bridges
- Whitley County, IN · 115 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.
Fair-condition bridges (69)
FM 578
FairOver: HUBBARD CREEK RELIEF #1
5.6 MI N OF US 183, Stephens, TX
Built 1959 Load: 29.9 t ADT: 163
US 180
FairOver: GONZALES CREEK
0.25 MI E OF US 183, Stephens, TX
Built 1921 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 9,104
US 183
FairOver: HUBBARD CREEK E RELIEF
3.35 MI NW OF FM 578, Stephens, TX
Built 1959 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 724
FM 207
FairOver: DRAW
6.10 MI E OF FM 717, Stephens, TX
Built 1957 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 100
FM 207
FairOver: DRAW
6.30 MI E OF FM 717, Stephens, TX
Built 1957 Load: 31.7 t ADT: 100
FM 576
FairOver: HOG BRANCH
5.1 MI W OF US 183, Stephens, TX
Built 1949 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 292
FM 717
FairOver: COTTONWOOD CREEK
3.85 MI S OF FM 207, Stephens, TX
Built 1949 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 220
CR 176
FairOver: BUFFORD CREEK
3 MI W JCT FM 701, Stephens, TX
Built 1995 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
CR 190
FairOver: PECAN CREEK
1.40 MI E OF FM 1853, Stephens, TX
Built 1993 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
CR 195
FairOver: BATTLE CREEK
0.45 MI S OF FM 576, Stephens, TX
Built 1990 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
FM 578
FairOver: HUBBARD CREEK RELIEF #2
4.8 MI N OF US 183, Stephens, TX
Built 1953 Load: 33.6 t ADT: 163
FM 1853
FairOver: DRAW
1.65 MI S OF FM 2408, Stephens, TX
Built 1958 Load: 33.6 t ADT: 100
US 180
FairOver: ELM CREEK
0.45 MI E OF FM 717, Stephens, TX
Built 1966 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 1,213
FM 1852
FairOver: EAST FORK GONZALES CREEK
2.10 MI S OF FM 576, Stephens, TX
Built 1980 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 180
US 183
FairOver: HUBBARD CREEK W RELIEF
3.70 MI NW OF FM 578, Stephens, TX
Built 1959 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 724
US 183
FairOver: DRAW
3.15 MI NW OF FM 578, Stephens, TX
Built 1959 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 724
US 183
FairOver: GIVENS CREEK
11.7 MI N OF FM 578, Stephens, TX
Built 1960 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 870
US 183
FairOver: CLEAR FORK BRAZOS RI REL
10.3 MI N OF FM 578, Stephens, TX
Built 1960 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 930
ELLIOTT ST
FairOver: GONZALES CREEK
0.10 MI E OF US 183, Stephens, TX
Built 1980 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 1,500
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.