Total bridges
255
Public highway bridges in Marion County
County profile · official public datasets
Marion County, AL
255 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.4% rated Good, 60.8% Fair, 0.8% Poor.
- 255
- Public bridges
- 38.4%
- Good condition
- 0.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Marion County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 12%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 255
- 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.
Marion County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Marion County ranks #8 of 67 Alabama counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.8%). Marion County, Alabama contains 255 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.4% are rated “Good,” 60.8% “Fair,” and 0.8% “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
38.4%
98 of 255 rated 7-9
Fair condition
60.8%
155 of 255 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.8%
2 of 255 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#8 of 67
Among Alabama counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 255 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 38.4% (98)
Fair 60.8% (155)
Poor 0.8% (2)
Marion County's Poor-condition bridges carry 160 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 80 crossings a day against 3,824 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 255 of 255 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
41.6% of Marion County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
106 of the 255 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 38.4% 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 81.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CO RD NO 52 over LUXAPALLILA CREEK, built 1965, carries 130 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 160 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Marion County's bridges were built
255 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 16
1900–1909
16 bridges
- 1910s 7
1910–1919
7 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 8
1930–1939
8 bridges
- 1940s 14
1940–1949
14 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
29 bridges
- 1960s 22
1960–1969
22 bridges
- 1970s 18
1970–1979
18 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
38 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
58 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
30 bridges
- 2010s 13
2010–2019
13 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 58 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Alabama average (1974).
How Marion County compares with Alabama's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Alabama counties nearest Marion County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 66 Alabama counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauderdale County | 266 | 45.9% | 49.6% | 4.5% | 1976 |
| Marion County (this page) | 255 | 38.4% | 60.8% | 0.8% | 1974 |
| Houston County | 247 | 47.4% | 52.2% | 0.4% | 1978 |
| Cullman County | 246 | 29.3% | 64.6% | 6.1% | 1970 |
| Talladega County | 243 | 44.9% | 51.9% | 3.3% | 1967 |
| Sumter County | 241 | 48.5% | 46.1% | 5.4% | 1969 |
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 Marion 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 Marion County, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside AL (255 bridges here).
- Osceola County, FL · 255 bridges
- Marshall County, MS · 255 bridges
- Nuckolls County, NE · 255 bridges
- Santa Fe County, NM · 255 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.
All bridges (255)
I-22
GoodOver: Trib. of Watts Creek
0.8 MI S OF AL-74, Marion, AL
Built 1988 Load: 88.9 t ADT: 12,221
I-22
GoodOver: Dougan Creek
0.9 MI E OF US-43, Marion, AL
Built 1992 Load: 88.9 t ADT: 12,178
I-22
GoodOver: Trib. of Cooper Creek
7.51 Miles E of US-43, Marion, AL
Built 1991 Load: 88.9 t ADT: 12,261
GRAVEL ROAD
PoorOver: SIPSEY CREEK
0.6 MILE WEST OF STRD 19, Marion, AL
Built 1984 Load: 1.8 t ADT: 30
CO RD NO 52
PoorOver: LUXAPALLILA CREEK
3 MILES EAST OF GUIN, Marion, AL
Built 1965 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 130
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.