County profile · official public datasets

Buncombe County, NC

555 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.6% rated Good, 58.4% Fair, 7% Poor.

555
Public bridges: 34.6%
Good condition: 7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Buncombe 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 100 on Poor share: 7%
Poor-condition share: 555
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.

Buncombe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Buncombe County ranks #66 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7%). Buncombe County, North Carolina contains 555 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.6% are rated “Good,” 58.4% “Fair,” and 7% “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

555

Public highway bridges in Buncombe County

Good condition

34.6%

192 of 555 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58.4%

324 of 555 rated 5-6

Poor condition

39 of 555 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#66 of 100

Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 555 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.6% (192)

Fair

58.4% (324)

Poor

7% (39)

Buncombe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 267,310 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,854 crossings a day against 8,377 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 555 of 555 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

50.8% of Buncombe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

282 of the 555 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 34.6% 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 18% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US19 23 over I-240 OFF RAMPS, built 1968, carries 48,000 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 39-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 267,310 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

14
1930s

12
1940s

14
1950s

41
1960s

134
1970s

135
1980s

54
1990s

32
2000s

37
2010s

62
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 135 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1978, 8 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

How Buncombe County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Buncombe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1989 is 11 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Buncombe County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Mecklenburg County	746	46.4%	51.1%	2.5%	1989
Guilford County	736	51.8%	42.9%	5.3%	1990
Buncombe County (this page)	555	34.6%	58.4%	7%	1978
Forsyth County	454	41.2%	49.8%	9%	1985
Randolph County	401	45.6%	52.9%	1.5%	1988
Union County	353	46.5%	49.3%	4.2%	1991

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 Buncombe 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 Buncombe County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (555 bridges here).

Kanawha County, WV · 554 bridges
Pottawattamie County, IA · 557 bridges
Yakima County, WA · 558 bridges
Larimer County, CO · 559 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (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 555 Good 192 Fair 324 Poor 39

All bridges (555)

Sort:

Buncombe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Buncombe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 267,310 vehicle crossings a day

50.8% of Buncombe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 18% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Buncombe County compares with North Carolina'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 (555)

SR2868

SR3446

NC9

SR2173

SR3185

SR2098

SR2748

9901

NC63

SR3128

SR2806

NC151

SR2079

I240 EBL

AZALEA RD.

SR1384

NC112

SR3137

SR2815

SR3466

SR2174

SR1383

US74A

SR1607

SR1674

SR2106

I240 WBL

SR3197

SR 1394

SR1109

SR2816

NC694

SR2797

SR1397

SR1003

I-40

SR1617

SR3462

SR1608

NC81

SR3452

SR1683

SR2427

I-26WBL US19 23NBL

I-26EBL US19 23SBL

I-240 EBL

WILD CHERRY RD.

NC63 WBL

US74A

I-240 WBL

Related