Total bridges
117
Public highway bridges in Polk County
County profile · official public datasets
Polk County, GA
117 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 74.4% rated Good, 23.9% Fair, 1.7% Poor.
- 117
- Public bridges
- 74.4%
- Good condition
- 1.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Polk 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.
- 108th
- of 159 on Poor share
- 1.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 117
- public highway bridges
- 1970
- 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.
Polk County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Polk County ranks #108 of 159 Georgia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.7%). Polk County, Georgia contains 117 public highway bridges. Roughly 74.4% are rated “Good,” 23.9% “Fair,” and 1.7% “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
74.4%
87 of 117 rated 7-9
Fair condition
23.9%
28 of 117 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.7%
2 of 117 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#108 of 159
Among Georgia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 117 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 74.4% (87)
Fair 23.9% (28)
Poor 1.7% (2)
Polk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,186 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,593 crossings a day against 5,277 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 117 of 117 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
58.1% of Polk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
68 of the 117 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 74.4% 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 88.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COLLEGE STREET over CSX RAILROAD, built 1918, carries 2,820 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 3,186 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Polk County's bridges were built
117 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
20 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
9 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
13 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
11 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
14 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
16 bridges
- 2010s 2
2010–2019
2 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 7 years older than the Georgia average of 1977.
How Polk County compares with Georgia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Georgia counties nearest Polk County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 5 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 158 Georgia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emanuel County | 121 | 81% | 17.4% | 1.7% | 1972 |
| Rabun County | 118 | 57.6% | 40.7% | 1.7% | 1973 |
| Franklin County | 117 | 70.1% | 27.4% | 2.6% | 1976 |
| Polk County (this page) | 117 | 74.4% | 23.9% | 1.7% | 1970 |
| Walton County | 115 | 72.2% | 26.1% | 1.7% | 1981 |
| Chattooga County | 113 | 58.4% | 32.7% | 8.8% | 1974 |
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 Polk 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 Polk County, both outside Georgia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside GA (117 bridges here).
- Clark County, KY · 117 bridges
- Fleming County, KY · 117 bridges
- Franklin County, KY · 117 bridges
- Benton County, MN · 117 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside GA (1970 here).
- Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
- Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
- Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
- San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.