Total bridges
264
Public highway bridges in Wise County
County profile · official public datasets
Wise County, TX
264 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 61.4% rated Good, 37.5% Fair, 1.1% Poor.
- 264
- Public bridges
- 61.4%
- Good condition
- 1.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Wise County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- 138th
- of 247 on Poor share
- 1.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 264
- public highway bridges
- 1989
- 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.
Wise County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wise County ranks #138 of 247 Texas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.1%). Wise County, Texas contains 264 public highway bridges. Roughly 61.4% are rated “Good,” 37.5% “Fair,” and 1.1% “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
61.4%
162 of 264 rated 7-9
Fair condition
37.5%
99 of 264 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.1%
3 of 264 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#138 of 247
Among Texas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 264 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 61.4% (162)
Fair 37.5% (99)
Poor 1.1% (3)
Wise County's Poor-condition bridges carry 861 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 287 crossings a day against 3,829 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 264 of 264 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
25.8% of Wise County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
68 of the 264 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 61.4% 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 81.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
FM 1658 over LAKE BRIDGEPORT SPLW, built 1972, carries 701 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 861 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Wise County's bridges were built
264 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 12
1940–1949
12 bridges
- 1950s 21
1950–1959
21 bridges
- 1960s 15
1960–1969
15 bridges
- 1970s 20
1970–1979
20 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
32 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
44 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
75 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
34 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 75 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 9 years newer than the Texas average of 1980.
How Wise County compares with Texas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Texas counties nearest Wise County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.1% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 14 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 246 Texas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hays County | 272 | 79% | 20.6% | 0.4% | 1996 |
| Harrison County | 269 | 41.6% | 55.8% | 2.6% | 1972 |
| Wise County (this page) | 264 | 61.4% | 37.5% | 1.1% | 1989 |
| DeWitt County | 263 | 49.8% | 49% | 1.1% | 1962 |
| Lavaca County | 262 | 50% | 47.3% | 2.7% | 1973 |
| Colorado County | 252 | 48.8% | 48.8% | 2.4% | 1971 |
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 Wise 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 Wise County, both outside Texas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TX (264 bridges here).
- Pueblo County, CO · 264 bridges
- O'Brien County, IA · 264 bridges
- Chatham County, GA · 265 bridges
- Rock County, MN · 265 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TX (1989 here).
- Mecklenburg County, NC · avg 1989 · 746 bridges
- Buffalo County, NE · avg 1989 · 459 bridges
- Dubuque County, IA · avg 1989 · 346 bridges
- Vernon County, LA · avg 1989 · 341 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
CR 1590 PCT 2
PoorOver: BIG SANDY CREEK
1.93 MI. W. OF US 287, Wise, TX
Built 1987 Load: 3.2 t ADT: 125
NEW HARP RD PCT 2
PoorOver: PANTHER CREEK
1.00 MI S OF FM 1655, Wise, TX
Built 1928 Load: 8.2 t ADT: 35
FM 1658
PoorOver: LAKE BRIDGEPORT SPLW
0.2 MILES WEST OF FM 2952, Wise, TX
Built 1972 Load: 33.6 t ADT: 701
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.