County profile · official public datasets

Calhoun County, AL

386 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.9% rated Good, 63.2% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

386
Public bridges: 32.9%
Good condition: 3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Calhoun 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.

42nd
of 67 on Poor share: 3.9%
Poor-condition share: 386
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Calhoun County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Calhoun County ranks #42 of 67 Alabama counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Calhoun County, Alabama contains 386 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.9% are rated “Good,” 63.2% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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.

Total bridges

386

Public highway bridges in Calhoun County

Good condition

32.9%

127 of 386 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.2%

244 of 386 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

15 of 386 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#42 of 67

Among Alabama counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 386 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

32.9% (127)

Fair

63.2% (244)

Poor

3.9% (15)

Calhoun County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,516 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 634 crossings a day against 4,328 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 385 of 386 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

64.2% of Calhoun County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

248 of the 386 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 32.9% 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 30.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 9 over COTTAQUILA CREEK, built 1940, carries 2,863 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,516 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

3
1920s

14
1930s

52
1940s

33
1950s

56
1960s

73
1970s

25
1980s

27
1990s

23
2000s

45
2010s

34
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 73 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 5 years older than the Alabama average of 1974.

How Calhoun County compares with Alabama's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Alabama counties nearest Calhoun County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 6 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 66 Alabama counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Calhoun County and the 5 Alabama counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Calhoun County (this page)	386	32.9%	63.2%	3.9%	1969
Baldwin County	381	48.3%	50.4%	1.3%	1991
Shelby County	344	41%	58.1%	0.9%	1981
Covington County	332	31.9%	63%	5.1%	1970
Limestone County	324	45.1%	52.8%	2.2%	1972
Jackson County	314	29%	67.2%	3.8%	1961

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 Calhoun 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 Calhoun County, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AL (386 bridges here).

Stanislaus County, CA · 386 bridges
Gibson County, TN · 386 bridges
Alfalfa County, OK · 387 bridges
Delaware County, PA · 387 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AL (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 386 Good 127 Fair 244 Poor 15

Fair-condition bridges (244)

Sort:

Calhoun County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Calhoun County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,516 vehicle crossings a day

64.2% of Calhoun County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 30.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Calhoun County compares with Alabama's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (244)

SR 21

Century Rd. 1915

HOWELL RD.

HOWELL RD.

RIDDLE FARM RD.

FISH HATCHERY RD.

SEVEN SPR. RD.

HOLDER LN.

SR 9

SR 9

1 MI W AL 21

.5 MI W ALA 21

4 MI N WILLIAMS

SR 9

COOSA DRIVE

SR21

FRIENDSHIP RD.

PLEASANT VALL. RD

DIRT ROAD

2 MI W AL 77

SR 77

I-20

SR 21

I-20

I-20

I-20

SR 144

SR4/US78

GNATVILLE RD.

SR 144

SR 204

CHOCCOLOCCO RD.

3 MI W US 431

RED ROAD 55

VIGO RD.

2 MI N AL 202

1 MI E ALA 9

VIGO ROAD

I-20

I-20

COFFEE ST.

ROY WEBB RD.

Old Gadsden Hwy

I-20

CO 158

I-20

SR1/US431

SR1 / US431

JIMMY PARKS BLVD

SR 144

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