Total bridges
155
Public highway bridges in Clarke County
County profile · official public datasets
Clarke County, AL
155 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 70.3% rated Good, 29.7% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 155
- Public bridges
- 70.3%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Clarke County posts a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 4%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 155
- public highway bridges
- 1973
- 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.
Clarke County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clarke County ranks #3 of 67 Alabama counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Clarke County, Alabama contains 155 public highway bridges. Roughly 70.3% are rated “Good,” 29.7% “Fair,” and 0% “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
70.3%
109 of 155 rated 7-9
Fair condition
29.7%
46 of 155 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 155 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#3 of 67
Among Alabama counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 155 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 70.3% (109)
Fair 29.7% (46)
Poor 0% (0)
54.8% of Clarke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
85 of the 155 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 70.3% 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.
When Clarke County's bridges were built
155 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 6
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s 7
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
27 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
36 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
23 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
22 bridges
- 2000s 13
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s 6
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the Alabama average (1974).
How Clarke County compares with Alabama's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Alabama counties nearest Clarke County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 66 Alabama counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleburne County | 165 | 32.1% | 61.8% | 6.1% | 1973 |
| Perry County | 162 | 19.8% | 75.9% | 4.3% | 1971 |
| Lowndes County | 157 | 43.3% | 55.4% | 1.3% | 1968 |
| Clarke County (this page) | 155 | 70.3% | 29.7% | 0% | 1973 |
| Choctaw County | 154 | 39.6% | 55.2% | 5.2% | 1971 |
| Tallapoosa County | 149 | 34.2% | 55% | 10.7% | 1967 |
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 Clarke 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 Clarke County, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AL (155 bridges here).
- Marshall County, IL · 155 bridges
- Tallahatchie County, MS · 155 bridges
- Haskell County, OK · 155 bridges
- Clatsop County, OR · 155 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AL (1973 here).
- Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
- Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
- Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
- Sacramento County, CA · avg 1973 · 740 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (0)
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.