County profile · official public datasets

Ware County, GA

107 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 74.8% rated Good, 24.3% Fair, 0.9% Poor.

107
Public bridges: 74.8%
Good condition: 0.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ware County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 49%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.9%
Poor-condition share: 107
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Ware County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ware County ranks #78 of 159 Georgia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.9%). Ware County, Georgia contains 107 public highway bridges. Roughly 74.8% are rated “Good,” 24.3% “Fair,” and 0.9% “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

107

Public highway bridges in Ware County

Good condition

74.8%

80 of 107 rated 7-9

Fair condition

24.3%

26 of 107 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.9%

1 of 107 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#78 of 159

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

Condition distribution

Share of 107 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

74.8% (80)

Fair

24.3% (26)

Poor

0.9% (1)

Ware County's Poor-condition bridges carry 430 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 430 crossings a day against 3,510 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 107 of 107 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

44.9% of Ware County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

48 of the 107 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 74.8% 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

SWAMP ROAD over GUM SWAMP, built 1965, carries 430 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 430 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

1
1940s

2
1950s

23
1960s

16
1970s

2
1980s

28
1990s

5
2000s

10
2010s

14
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Georgia average (1977).

How Ware County compares with Georgia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Georgia counties nearest Ware County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 158 Georgia counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ware County and the 5 Georgia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Mitchell County	111	86.5%	11.7%	1.8%	1971
Fannin County	107	36.4%	61.7%	1.9%	1980
Habersham County	107	77.6%	21.5%	0.9%	1974
Ware County (this page)	107	74.8%	24.3%	0.9%	1979
Brooks County	104	68.3%	27.9%	3.8%	1970
Grady County	104	93.3%	5.8%	1%	1982

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 Ware 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 Ware County, both outside Georgia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside GA (107 bridges here).

Magoffin County, KY · 107 bridges
Barnstable County, MA · 107 bridges
Mille Lacs County, MN · 107 bridges
Luna County, NM · 107 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside GA (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 107 Good 80 Fair 26 Poor 1

All bridges (107)

Sort:

Ware County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ware County's Poor-condition bridges carry 430 vehicle crossings a day

44.9% of Ware County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ware County compares with Georgia'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 (107)

BICKLEY HIGHWAY

EIGHT MILE POST RD

TELMORE-DIXIE U RD

TELMORE-DIXIE U RD

SR 4 BUS - US 1 BU

SR 38 - US 84

JAMESTOWN ROAD

SR 38 - US 84

ALBANY AVENUE

BICKLEY HIGHWAY

MANOR MILLWOOD RD.

SWAMP ROAD

JAMESTOWN ROAD

JAMESTOWN ROAD

MORNINGSIDE DRIVE

JAMESTOWN ROAD

CHEROKEE STREET

FORKS ROAD

WADLEY ROAD

RICARDO STREET

SR 122

HAINES AVENUE

DUNCAN BRIDGE RD

SR 4 (NBL) US 1

SR 38 - US 84

SR 520-US 82-COR Z

SR 4 (SBL) US 1

US 1 / SR 4 NBL

US 82 COR Z

US 82 (WBL) COR Z

CITY BOULEVARD

COUNTY ROAD 49

BARTON ROAD

US 1 SR 4 NBL

ALBANY ROAD

CARSWELL ROAD

SR 158

SR 158

OLD NICHOLS HWY.

OLD NICHOLS HWY.

BICKLEY HIGHWAY

TELMORE-DIXIE U RD

NORTH RIVER ROAD

MANOR MILLWOOD RD.

MILLWOOD ROAD

HOPKINS ROAD

SWAMP ROAD

JAMESTOWN ROAD

BRUNEL STREET

MILLWOOD ROAD

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