County profile · official public datasets

Claiborne County, MS

136 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25% rated Good, 72.8% Fair, 2.2% Poor.

136
Public bridges: 25%
Good condition: 2.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Claiborne County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 21%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.2%
Poor-condition share: 136
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Claiborne County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Claiborne County ranks #17 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.2%). Claiborne County, Mississippi contains 136 public highway bridges. Roughly 25% are rated “Good,” 72.8% “Fair,” and 2.2% “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.

Total bridges

136

Public highway bridges in Claiborne County

Good condition

25%

34 of 136 rated 7-9

Fair condition

72.8%

99 of 136 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.2%

3 of 136 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#17 of 82

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

Condition distribution

Share of 136 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

25% (34)

Fair

72.8% (99)

Poor

2.2% (3)

Claiborne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 385 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 193 crossings a day against 413 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 135 of 136 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.7% of Claiborne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

54 of the 136 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 25% 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 67.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 161 over BARNES CREEK, built 1936, carries 260 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 385 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

7
1960s

36
1970s

16
1980s

50
1990s

8
2000s

8
2010s

4
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 50 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 36.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1978, 8 years older than the Mississippi average of 1986.

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

The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Claiborne County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.2% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Claiborne County and the 5 Mississippi counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jefferson Davis County	142	77.5%	19.7%	2.8%	1992
Leflore County	139	40.3%	50.4%	9.4%	1976
Tate County	139	39.6%	58.3%	2.2%	1992
Tippah County	139	60.4%	34.5%	5%	1989
Claiborne County (this page)	136	25%	72.8%	2.2%	1978
Lawrence County	134	78.4%	20.9%	0.7%	1989

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MS (136 bridges here).

Bullock County, AL · 136 bridges
Jackson County, AR · 136 bridges
Perry County, IL · 136 bridges
Lincoln County, KY · 136 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 136 Good 34 Fair 99 Poor 3

All bridges (136)

Sort:

Claiborne County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Claiborne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 385 vehicle crossings a day

39.7% of Claiborne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 67.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Claiborne 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 (136)

HANKISON RD OLD 61

OLD PORT GIBSON

OLD PORT GIBSON

MOORE ROAD

US 61

US 61

PATTISON-HERMANVIL

OLD 61 RD

GORDON STATION RD

GORDON STATION RD

TILLMAN RD

MERT DAVIS RD

MERT DAVIS RD

BALD HILL RD

GRAND GULF RD

RUSSELL RD

TILLMAN RD

GORDON STATION RD

GORDON STATION RD

RAILROAD AVE

WHITE HALL RD

ROMOLA RD

WHITAKER RD

RAMOLA RD

BYRNES ROAD

SHILOH ROAD

SR 548

BARLAND RD

GRAND GULF RD

RODNEY ROAD

OLD PORT GIBSON

HUNT RD

CARLISLE ROAD

SR 161

MERT DAVIS RD

ROMOLA RD

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

SR 548

BARLAND RD

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

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