Total bridges
259
Public highway bridges in Lafayette County
County profile · official public datasets
Lafayette County, MS
259 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.7% rated Good, 54.1% Fair, 4.2% Poor.
- 259
- Public bridges
- 41.7%
- Good condition
- 4.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lafayette County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 43%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 4.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 259
- public highway bridges
- 1990
- 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.
Lafayette County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lafayette County ranks #35 of 82 Mississippi counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.2%). Lafayette County, Mississippi contains 259 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.7% are rated “Good,” 54.1% “Fair,” and 4.2% “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
41.7%
108 of 259 rated 7-9
Fair condition
54.1%
140 of 259 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.2%
11 of 259 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#35 of 82
Among Mississippi counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 259 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 41.7% (108)
Fair 54.1% (140)
Poor 4.2% (11)
Lafayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 26,955 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,450 crossings a day against 2,681 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 259 of 259 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
20.5% of Lafayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
53 of the 259 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 41.7% 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 77.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US 278 over STREAM, built 1937, carries 21,000 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 26,955 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lafayette County's bridges were built
259 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s 19
1950–1959
19 bridges
- 1960s 20
1960–1969
20 bridges
- 1970s 19
1970–1979
19 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
36 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
76 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
37 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
42 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 76 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the Mississippi average (1986).
How Lafayette County compares with Mississippi's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Mississippi counties nearest Lafayette County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.2% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1992 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 81 Mississippi counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson County | 268 | 69.4% | 28% | 2.6% | 1996 |
| Copiah County | 266 | 25.9% | 69.2% | 4.9% | 1987 |
| DeSoto County | 266 | 59.4% | 38.7% | 1.9% | 1995 |
| Lafayette County (this page) | 259 | 41.7% | 54.1% | 4.2% | 1990 |
| Marshall County | 255 | 44.7% | 47.8% | 7.5% | 1993 |
| Lowndes County | 248 | 76.2% | 21% | 2.8% | 1987 |
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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette County, both outside Mississippi so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MS (259 bridges here).
- Apache County, AZ · 259 bridges
- Gila County, AZ · 259 bridges
- Ellsworth County, KS · 259 bridges
- Hampshire County, MA · 259 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MS (1990 here).
- Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
- Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
- Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
- Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (259)
CO.ROAD 3011
PoorOver: COURTNEY CREEK
SEC 9 T10S R 3W, Lafayette, MS
Built 1994 Load: 6.9 t ADT: 50
CO.ROAD 489
PoorOver: CREEK
SEC 9 T10S R 1W, Lafayette, MS
Built 1959 Load: 8.2 t ADT: 20
CO.ROAD 383
PoorOver: OTOUCALOFA CREEK
SEC 36 T10S R 3W, Lafayette, MS
Built 1995 Load: 8.9 t ADT: 50
CO.ROAD 376
PoorOver: HUMPHREYS CREEK
SEC 7 T10S R 3W B, Lafayette, MS
Built 1957 Load: 16.4 t ADT: 105
KEEL ROAD
PoorOver: CYPRESS CREEK
SE S18 T8S R1W, Lafayette, MS
Built 1972 Load: 20.7 t ADT: 50
SR 30
PoorOver: CYPRESS CREEK
3.1 MI W UNION CL, Lafayette, MS
Built 1954 Load: 22.4 t ADT: 3,000
SR 310
PoorOver: GREASY CREEK
0.9 MI E PANOLA CL, Lafayette, MS
Built 1999 Load: 25.9 t ADT: 730
SR 334
PoorOver: STREAM
4.9 MI SE SR 6, Lafayette, MS
Built 1927 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 1,800
US 278
PoorOver: STREAM
4.6 MI E PANOLA CL, Lafayette, MS
Built 1937 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 21,000
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.