County profile · official public datasets

Lamar County, AL

181 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26% rated Good, 71.8% Fair, 2.2% Poor.

181
Public bridges: 26%
Good condition: 2.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lamar County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.2%
Poor-condition share: 181
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Lamar County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lamar County ranks #28 of 67 Alabama counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.2%). Lamar County, Alabama contains 181 public highway bridges. Roughly 26% are rated “Good,” 71.8% “Fair,” and 2.2% “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

181

Public highway bridges in Lamar County

Good condition

26%

47 of 181 rated 7-9

Fair condition

71.8%

130 of 181 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.2%

4 of 181 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#28 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 181 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

26% (47)

Fair

71.8% (130)

Poor

2.2% (4)

Lamar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,856 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 714 crossings a day against 893 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 181 of 181 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

61.3% of Lamar County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

111 of the 181 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 26% 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 33.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FIRST AVENUE EAST over YELLOW CK RELIEF, built 1928, carries 947 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,856 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

24
1930s

4
1940s

12
1950s

53
1960s

16
1970s

7
1980s

20
1990s

13
2000s

23
2010s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 8 years older than the Alabama average of 1974.

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

The 5 Alabama counties nearest Lamar County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lamar County and the 5 Alabama counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chambers County	185	51.9%	40%	8.1%	1973
St. Clair County	183	27.3%	71%	1.6%	1967
Lamar County (this page)	181	26%	71.8%	2.2%	1966
Blount County	180	12.8%	79.4%	7.8%	1968
Hale County	177	49.2%	45.8%	5.1%	1972
Macon County	177	24.9%	64.4%	10.7%	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 Lamar 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 Lamar County, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AL (181 bridges here).

Jasper County, IL · 181 bridges
Malheur County, OR · 181 bridges
Lancaster County, SC · 181 bridges
Potter County, TX · 181 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AL (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 181 Good 47 Fair 130 Poor 4

All bridges (181)

Sort:

Lamar County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lamar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,856 vehicle crossings a day

61.3% of Lamar County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lamar 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

All bridges (181)

TRIMM RD

WATER WORKS ST.

HENSON SPRINGS RD

BLUE BIRD RD

LITTLE HELLS CK RD

WESTERN FRONT RD

BLAYLOCK RD

OLD CALVERT RD

RIVER RD

CR-49

HOLLY RD

HELLS CREEK RD.

LINDSEY RD

CR-49

CR-49

ABERDEEN RD

MULBERRY RD

HENSON SPRINGS RD

CODY RD

CR-49

MULBERRY RD

CR-16

PARK STREET

BUCK JACKSON RD

CR-20

MULBERRY RD

CR-49

RIVER RD

RIVER RD

RIVER RD

HENSON SPRINGS RD

CR-49

CR-49

BUCK JACKSON RD

LOST CREEK RD

CR-36

Al-17

AL-17

CR-49

AL-17

CR-15

AL-17

AL-17

CR-36

AL-118

CR-36

CODY RD

CR-9

AL-96

SHAKE RAG RD

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