County profile · official public datasets

Cabarrus County, NC

236 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53% rated Good, 38.6% Fair, 8.5% Poor.

236
Public bridges: 53%
Good condition: 8.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cabarrus County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

72nd
of 100 on Poor share: 8.5%
Poor-condition share: 236
public highway bridges: 1993
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.

Cabarrus County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cabarrus County ranks #72 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.5%). Cabarrus County, North Carolina contains 236 public highway bridges. Roughly 53% are rated “Good,” 38.6% “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

236

Public highway bridges in Cabarrus County

Good condition

53%

125 of 236 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.6%

91 of 236 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8.5%

20 of 236 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#72 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 236 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53% (125)

Fair

38.6% (91)

Poor

8.5% (20)

Cabarrus County's Poor-condition bridges carry 122,380 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.8% 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 6,119 crossings a day against 9,316 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 236 of 236 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

23.3% of Cabarrus County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

55 of the 236 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 53% 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 13.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NC73 over CODDLE CREEK, built 1969, carries 16,500 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 122,380 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

3
1940s

6
1950s

14
1960s

19
1970s

13
1980s

26
1990s

35
2000s

34
2010s

69
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 69 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1993, 7 years newer than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Cabarrus 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 1993 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 13 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cabarrus County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chatham County	241	42.7%	55.2%	2.1%	1983
Catawba County	236	32.6%	60.6%	6.8%	1981
Cabarrus County (this page)	236	53%	38.6%	8.5%	1993
McDowell County	235	43.4%	48.9%	7.7%	1981
Jackson County	234	39.7%	47.4%	12.8%	1977
Gaston County	232	36.6%	58.2%	5.2%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (236 bridges here).

Etowah County, AL · 236 bridges
York County, ME · 236 bridges
Wyandot County, OH · 236 bridges
Logan County, WV · 236 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1993 here).

Salt Lake County, UT · avg 1993 · 659 bridges
Marshall County, MS · avg 1993 · 255 bridges
Daviess County, IN · avg 1993 · 221 bridges
Scott County, MN · avg 1993 · 129 bridges

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

All 236 Good 125 Fair 91 Poor 20

Fair-condition bridges (91)

Sort:

Cabarrus County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cabarrus County's Poor-condition bridges carry 122,380 vehicle crossings a day

23.3% of Cabarrus County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 13.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cabarrus 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

Fair-condition bridges (91)

SR2625

SR1169

SR2698

US29

SR2408

SR1448

NC49

US29 SBL

NC200

NC200

US601

SR1790

NC73

SR1118

SR1002

NC73

SR2637

US29 NBL

SR1114

NC73

US601

SR2442

NC73

NC73

NC73

NC49

SR1166

SR1141

SR1134

SR1430/I85 RAMP

SR1189

THUNDER ROAD

DAKOTA STREET

LAWNDALE AVE.

SR2154

US601

SR1304

SR1157

SR1612

NC3

SR1449

SR1430

SR2448

SR1139

SR2685

SR2416

PINE STREET

NC3

SR1002

NC3

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