Total bridges
216
Public highway bridges in Coffee County
County profile · official public datasets
Coffee County, AL
216 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.3% rated Good, 41.2% Fair, 0.5% Poor.
- 216
- Public bridges
- 58.3%
- Good condition
- 0.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Coffee County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 9%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 216
- public highway bridges
- 1974
- 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.
Coffee County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Coffee County ranks #6 of 67 Alabama counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.5%). Coffee County, Alabama contains 216 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.3% are rated “Good,” 41.2% “Fair,” and 0.5% “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
58.3%
126 of 216 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.2%
89 of 216 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.5%
1 of 216 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#6 of 67
Among Alabama counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 216 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 58.3% (126)
Fair 41.2% (89)
Poor 0.5% (1)
Coffee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 42 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 42 crossings a day against 933 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 216 of 216 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
60.2% of Coffee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
130 of the 216 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 58.3% 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.
One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
DIRT RD .7 MI S 84 over DOUBLE BRIDGES CREEK, built 1988, carries 42 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 42 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Coffee County's bridges were built
216 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 7
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
42 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
53 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
27 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
24 bridges
- 2000s 14
2000–2009
14 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Alabama average (1974).
How Coffee County compares with Alabama's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Alabama counties nearest Coffee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 66 Alabama counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas County | 225 | 26.2% | 70.7% | 3.1% | 1971 |
| Conecuh County | 224 | 24.1% | 69.6% | 6.3% | 1977 |
| Coffee County (this page) | 216 | 58.3% | 41.2% | 0.5% | 1974 |
| Lawrence County | 215 | 52.1% | 45.1% | 2.8% | 1976 |
| Lee County | 214 | 40.7% | 57.9% | 1.4% | 1980 |
| Dale County | 206 | 42.7% | 57.3% | 0% | 1973 |
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 Coffee 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 Coffee County, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AL (216 bridges here).
- Miller County, AR · 216 bridges
- Ascension County, LA · 216 bridges
- Clinton County, MI · 216 bridges
- Choctaw County, OK · 216 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside AL (1974 here).
- Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
- Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
- Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
- Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (1)
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.