The Numbers Now
Oklahoma has 22,926 bridges, the 5th-largest inventory among the top-15 poor-rate states. (ARTBA 2025) Of those, 1,719 are rated in poor condition, a rate of 8% against a national average of 6.7%. The state ranks #15 nationally. (ARTBA 2025)
Poor bridges account for only 3.5% of total deck area and carry under 2% of statewide bridge traffic, with 1.3 million daily crossings out of 73.3 million. (FHWA NBI 2024) The problem skews heavily toward smaller, low-volume structures rather than the corridors that carry the bulk of Oklahoma's traffic.
ARTBA estimates $16.4 billion in total repair costs across all 20,322 bridges needing some level of work, not just the 1,719 in poor condition. (ARTBA 2025) The full state profile is available on ARTBA's Oklahoma bridge report.
The Ownership Split
This is where Oklahoma's ranking separates from the headline. County bridges number 12,998, which is 57% of the statewide inventory, and 1,500 of them are rated poor at a rate of 11.5%. (FHWA NBI 2024) State highway bridges number 6,750, and only 46 are poor, a rate of 0.7%. Counties hold 87% of all poor bridges in the state. (FHWA NBI 2024)
That 0.7%-vs.-11.5% disparity is the most extreme state-vs.-local gap in this entire series. ODOT ranks 4th nationally for highway bridge conditions, but that ranking applies to the state highway system only. The statewide figure, including all owners, is #15. (ARTBA 2025; FHWA NBI 2024)
| Owner | Total | Poor | Poor Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Highway | 6,750 | 46 | 0.7% |
| County | 12,998 | 1,500 | 11.5% |
| City/Municipal | 2,133 | 202 | 9.5% |
| State Toll (OTA) | 862 | 1 | 0.1% |
| Federal/Tribal | 137 | 13 | 9.5% |
City and municipal bridges add another 2,133 structures with 202 poor (9.5%), and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority's 862 bridges have a single poor rating (0.1%). (FHWA NBI 2024) These categories round out the inventory but are not the story. The county system is.
The Turnaround
In 2002, a barge struck the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River at Webbers Falls, killing 14 people and galvanizing political will for infrastructure investment. (ODOT)
Two years later, 1,168 of 6,800 state highway bridges (17%) were structurally deficient, and Oklahoma ranked 49th nationally for highway bridge conditions. In 2005, the legislature passed the ROADS Fund (HB 1078), which created a novel mechanism: direct allocation of state income tax revenue to transportation, bypassing the annual appropriation process. Subsequent legislation expanded capacity from $170 million to $575 million annually, and by 2019, combined ROADS Fund and fuel tax revenues reached approximately $775 million, more than triple the 2005 level. (Oklahoma Legislature; ODOT)
The results were extraordinary. By 2025, only 35 ODOT-maintained bridges were structurally deficient, and the state ranked 4th nationally for highway bridges. Since 2004, ODOT has replaced or rehabilitated nearly 1,600 structurally deficient bridges, with the remaining 35 in the eight-year construction plan. (ODOT)
Few states have reversed a failing highway system this completely, or this fast. The ROADS Fund gave Oklahoma's highway program a dedicated revenue stream large enough to address the backlog at scale, and ODOT executed on it.
The County Gap
The county system is on a different trajectory entirely. Created in 2006, the County Improvements for Roads and Bridges (CIRB) fund channels state motor vehicle and fuel tax revenues into county projects, capped at $120 million per year until 2022 when the legislature began a six-year phase-in to $150 million. Since 2006, CIRB has funded 728 county bridge replacements and over 1,150 miles of county road improvements. (Oklahoma Legislature; ODOT)
But 1,500 county bridges remain in poor condition, and county officials estimate $760 million is needed for the poor and functionally obsolete backlog alone. (County officials) That $760 million figure is entirely separate from ARTBA's $16.4 billion estimate, which covers all 20,322 bridges statewide needing some level of work. The two numbers have different scopes and different sources, and adding them together would be wrong.
The pace math: The CIRB fund has replaced 728 county bridges since 2006, averaging roughly 38 per year. At that rate, clearing the current county backlog would take nearly 40 years without accounting for bridges deteriorating into poor condition during that period. The ROADS Fund transformed the state highway system in roughly 15 years by tripling annual revenue to $775 million. The CIRB program has no equivalent revenue surge, and the county system it serves is nearly twice the size of the state highway inventory.
A 2022 audit by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) criticized the CIRB formula for distributing funds equally across eight Transportation Commission districts regardless of varying needs, failing to account for areas with the greatest concentration of deficient infrastructure. (LOFT 2022)
Some county poor rates exceed 27%, but the concentration varies across all 77 counties. The CIRB program is the primary mechanism, and its pace will determine how long the county backlog persists.
Energy and the County Road Network
Oklahoma's energy economy puts heavy truck traffic on a rural road network not designed for it. Oil and gas operations require heavy truck movements for drilling, produced water hauling, and pipeline construction, and the Cushing hub holds about 14% of the nation's commercial crude oil storage capacity. (EIA)
Wind energy adds a different kind of load. Oklahoma ranks 3rd nationally in wind electricity generation, with over 7,400 MW installed and wind providing 41% of state electricity in 2024. (EIA) Wind farm construction involves transporting blade sections exceeding 200 feet on county roads and across county bridges, routes that were designed decades ago for farm equipment and passenger vehicles.
ODOT does not track overweight permits on county roads, because those routes fall outside the state permit system entirely. (ODOT) The correlation between energy activity and bridge deterioration is directional but not proven. No county-level data linking energy production to bridge condition was found in the research. Areas where energy production is concentrated likely experience faster bridge wear, but the scale of that effect remains unquantified.
Funding Picture
Oklahoma's gas tax sits at 19 cents per gallon on both gasoline and diesel, the result of a 2018 increase that ended a 31-year freeze dating to 1987. Even after the increase, the rate remains among the lowest nationally and generates roughly $200 million annually. (Oklahoma Legislature)
The gross production tax (7% on oil and gas) provides approximately $89 million annually to county roads and bridges but creates a volatile funding stream tied to energy prices. When oil prices fall, county transportation revenue falls with them. (Oklahoma Legislature)
Through the IIJA Bridge Formula Program, Oklahoma received a total allocation of $288 million. As of June 2025, $230.4 million was available and $171.2 million had been committed to 113 projects, which is 74% of available funds. (ARTBA; FHWA) ARTBA reports a 95% commitment rate; the discrepancy likely reflects different reporting periods. Both figures are presented here without resolving which is definitive.
The statewide trend is positive. Poor bridges dropped from 2,296 in 2021 to 1,719 in 2025, a 25% reduction in four years. (ARTBA 2025) But the rate of improvement will likely slow as the remaining backlog shifts increasingly to county bridges, which are harder to fund, slower to program, and more dispersed across 77 counties than the state highway structures that drove the early gains.
What "Poor Condition" Means
A bridge is classified as being in "poor condition" if any one of its three primary components (deck, superstructure, or substructure) receives a rating of 4 or below on the NBI's 0-to-9 scale. A poor rating does not mean a bridge is unsafe or at risk of collapse. It means the bridge has deteriorated to the point where it needs repair or replacement. Bridges rated poor are typically subject to increased inspection frequency, load restrictions, or both.
Data Sources
Statewide totals (22,926 bridges, 1,719 poor, 8%, rank #15) are from the ARTBA 2025 Bridge Report, based on 2025 FHWA National Bridge Inventory data. Ownership breakdowns and county-level data are from the FHWA NBI 2024 dataset. ROADS Fund, CIRB program, and gas tax figures are from ODOT and the Oklahoma Legislature as cited inline. IIJA commitment data is from ARTBA and FHWA, and the LOFT audit finding is from the 2022 Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency report.
Caveats
Bridge inspection practices and rating standards can vary by inspector and agency. The NBI captures a snapshot in time; individual bridge conditions change between inspection cycles. ARTBA's $16.4 billion repair estimate covers all 20,322 bridges needing work, not just the 1,719 in poor condition. The county officials' $760 million estimate covers a different scope (county poor and functionally obsolete bridges only) and comes from a different source. Percentages are rounded to whole numbers except for the national average (6.7%) and ownership table rates (0.7%, 11.5%, 9.5%, 0.1%), which retain their published decimals.