County profile · official public datasets

Choctaw County, MS

164 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.3% rated Good, 37.2% Fair, 8.5% Poor.

164
Public bridges: 54.3%
Good condition: 8.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Choctaw 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.

66th
of 82 on Poor share: 8.5%
Poor-condition share: 164
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Choctaw County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Choctaw County ranks #66 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.5%). Choctaw County, Mississippi contains 164 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.3% are rated “Good,” 37.2% “Fair,” and 8.5% “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

164

Public highway bridges in Choctaw County

Good condition

54.3%

89 of 164 rated 7-9

Fair condition

37.2%

61 of 164 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8.5%

14 of 164 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#66 of 82

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

Condition distribution

Share of 164 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.3% (89)

Fair

37.2% (61)

Poor

8.5% (14)

Choctaw County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,235 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 231 crossings a day against 664 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 164 of 164 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37.8% of Choctaw County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

62 of the 164 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 54.3% 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 64.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 9 over BIG BLACK RIVER, built 1955, carries 2,100 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,235 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

6
1940s

9
1950s

33
1960s

5
1970s

7
1980s

29
1990s

30
2000s

27
2010s

12
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 33 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the Mississippi average of 1986.

How Choctaw County compares with Mississippi's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Choctaw County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is 5 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 81 Mississippi counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Choctaw County and the 5 Mississippi counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sunflower County	169	52.7%	21.9%	25.4%	1981
Pontotoc County	166	62%	34.3%	3.6%	1987
Covington County	164	80.5%	16.5%	3%	1989
Choctaw County (this page)	164	54.3%	37.2%	8.5%	1981
Grenada County	163	47.9%	50.3%	1.8%	1983
Perry County	162	71%	29%	0%	1990

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MS (164 bridges here).

Sevier County, AR · 164 bridges
Cherokee County, GA · 164 bridges
Pawnee County, KS · 164 bridges
Morrison County, MN · 164 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 164 Good 89 Fair 61 Poor 14

All bridges (164)

Sort:

Choctaw County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Choctaw County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,235 vehicle crossings a day

37.8% of Choctaw County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 64.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Choctaw County compares with Mississippi'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 (164)

BURDINE-SHERWOODRD

JERUSALEM ROAD

SR 15

PANHANDLE ROAD

JAMES WARD ROAD

WEIR-STEWART ROAD

FENT-PANHANDLE RD

GLADNEY ROAD

HAMRICK ROAD

SPAY ROAD

WEIR-HIGHPOINT RD

BETHLEHEM ROAD

SOUTH CO LINE RD

SR 12

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

SR 759

SR 12

SR 407

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

MCCOOL-PLATTSBURG

WELLS ROAD

BOLLIS-TOMNOLEN RD

WELLS ROAD

SR 15

WEIR-STEWART RD

CHESTER-MILLS ROAD

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

CHOCTAW LAKE ROAD

SR 15

BOLLIS-TOMNOLEN

MADDOX ROAD

PIGEON ROOST ROAD

CHESTER-TOMNOLENRD

SR 413

SR 413

SR 413

SR 413

MAGEE-THOMPSON RD

HESTER RD

SR 413

SR 9

PEARSON ROAD

BOLLIS-TOMNOLEN RD

SR 413

BETHSALEM-CONCORD

BETHSALEM-CONCORDR

S. COMMERCE STREET

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

SR 12

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

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