Total bridges
149
Public highway bridges in Walker County
County profile · official public datasets
Walker County, GA
149 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 51.7% rated Good, 46.3% Fair, 2% Poor.
- 149
- Public bridges
- 51.7%
- Good condition
- 2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Walker 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.
- 116th
- of 159 on Poor share
- 2%
- Poor-condition share
- 149
- public highway bridges
- 1971
- 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.
Walker County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Walker County ranks #116 of 159 Georgia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Walker County, Georgia contains 149 public highway bridges. Roughly 51.7% are rated “Good,” 46.3% “Fair,” and 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.
Good condition
51.7%
77 of 149 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46.3%
69 of 149 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2%
3 of 149 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#116 of 159
Among Georgia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 149 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 51.7% (77)
Fair 46.3% (69)
Poor 2% (3)
Walker County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,960 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 653 crossings a day against 3,542 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 149 of 149 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
44.3% of Walker County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
66 of the 149 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 51.7% 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 46.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
STRAIGHT CUT ROAD over CRAWFISH CREEK, built 1923, carries 920 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,960 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Walker County's bridges were built
149 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 11
1920–1929
11 bridges
- 1930s 12
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 8
1940–1949
8 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
33 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
32 bridges
- 1990s 4
1990–1999
4 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
16 bridges
- 2010s 4
2010–2019
4 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 33 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 6 years older than the Georgia average of 1977.
How Walker County compares with Georgia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Georgia counties nearest Walker County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 9 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 158 Georgia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherokee County | 164 | 84.8% | 15.2% | 0% | 1985 |
| Hall County | 151 | 71.5% | 27.2% | 1.3% | 1981 |
| Walker County (this page) | 149 | 51.7% | 46.3% | 2% | 1971 |
| Henry County | 140 | 86.4% | 12.1% | 1.4% | 1988 |
| Bulloch County | 139 | 80.6% | 19.4% | 0% | 1974 |
| Meriwether County | 135 | 37% | 48.1% | 14.8% | 1972 |
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 Walker 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 Walker County, both outside Georgia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside GA (149 bridges here).
- Tallapoosa County, AL · 149 bridges
- Drew County, AR · 149 bridges
- Madison County, AR · 149 bridges
- Valley County, ID · 149 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside GA (1971 here).
- Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
- Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
- Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
- Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
STRAIGHT CUT ROAD
PoorOver: CRAWFISH CREEK
8.9 MI N OF LAFAYETTE, Walker, GA
Built 1923 Load: 4.5 t ADT: 920
EAST ARMUCHEE RD
PoorOver: EAST ARMUCHEE CREEK
1.5 MI SOUTH OF VILLANOW, Walker, GA
Built 1973 Load: 11.7 t ADT: 910
KENSINGTON ROAD
PoorOver: MILL CREEK
7.1 MI NW OF LAFAYETTE, Walker, GA
Built 1982 Load: 99.9 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.