Total bridges
54
Public highway bridges in Ward County
County profile · official public datasets
Ward County, TX
54 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 18.5% rated Good, 79.6% Fair, 1.9% Poor.
- 54
- Public bridges
- 18.5%
- Good condition
- 1.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Ward 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.
- 172nd
- of 247 on Poor share
- 1.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 54
- public highway bridges
- 1964
- 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.
Ward County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ward County ranks #172 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.9%). Ward County, Texas contains 54 public highway bridges. Roughly 18.5% are rated “Good,” 79.6% “Fair,” and 1.9% “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
18.5%
10 of 54 rated 7-9
Fair condition
79.6%
43 of 54 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.9%
1 of 54 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#172 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 54 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 18.5% (10)
Fair 79.6% (43)
Poor 1.9% (1)
Ward County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,884 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,884 crossings a day against 3,481 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 54 of 54 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
87% of Ward County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
47 of the 54 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 18.5% 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
IH 20 BUS over IH 20, built 1968, carries 3,884 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 3,884 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Ward County's bridges were built
54 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
34 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s 4
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 63% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1964, 16 years older than the Texas average of 1980.
How Ward County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Ward County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1963 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling County | 54 | 55.6% | 44.4% | 0% | 1966 |
| Ward County (this page) | 54 | 18.5% | 79.6% | 1.9% | 1964 |
| Rains County | 53 | 45.3% | 50.9% | 3.8% | 1979 |
| Terrell County | 53 | 54.7% | 45.3% | 0% | 1957 |
| Throckmorton County | 53 | 56.6% | 41.5% | 1.9% | 1954 |
| Borden County | 52 | 53.8% | 46.2% | 0% | 1957 |
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 Ward 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 Ward County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (54 bridges here).
- Rio Blanco County, CO · 54 bridges
- Brantley County, GA · 54 bridges
- Jones County, GA · 54 bridges
- Larue County, KY · 54 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1964 here).
- Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
- Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
- Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
- Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (10)
IH 20 BUS
GoodOver: Pecos River Relief
0.55 Mi E of Reeves C/L, Ward, TX
Built 1927 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 5,099
IH 20 BUS
GoodOver: Draw
2.65 Mi E of Reeves C/L, Ward, TX
Built 1927 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 4,607
IH 20 NFR
GoodOver: DRAW
4.3 MI NE OF FM 516, Ward, TX
Built 1941 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 180
IH 20 NFR
GoodOver: DRAW
4.65 MI NE OF FM 516, Ward, TX
Built 1941 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 180
IH 20 NFR
GoodOver: DRAW
4.9 MI NE OF FM 516, Ward, TX
Built 1941 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 180
IH 20 & SFR
GoodOver: DRAW
1.95 MI NE OF REEVES C/L, Ward, TX
Built 1968 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 18,626
FM 3398
GoodOver: Pecos River
0.00 MI E of Reeves C/L, Ward, TX
Built 1980 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 848
FM 1776
GoodOver: Pecos River
1.0 Mi SW of FM 1927, Ward, TX
Built 2009 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,689
FM 516
GoodOver: Cedarvale Canal
2.80 MI NW of FM 3398, Ward, TX
Built 1947 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 312
FM 516
GoodOver: DRAINAGE DITCH
2.95 MI NW OF IH 20 BUS, Ward, TX
Built 1947 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 1,091
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.