Total bridges
28
Public highway bridges in Camden County
County profile · official public datasets
Camden County, NC
28 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.9% rated Good, 46.4% Fair, 10.7% Poor.
- 28
- Public bridges
- 42.9%
- Good condition
- 10.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Camden County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 83rd
- of 100 on Poor share
- 10.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 28
- public highway bridges
- 1989
- 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.
Camden County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Camden County ranks #83 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.7%). Camden County, North Carolina contains 28 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.9% are rated “Good,” 46.4% “Fair,” and 10.7% “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.
Good condition
42.9%
12 of 28 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46.4%
13 of 28 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.7%
3 of 28 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#83 of 100
Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 28 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 42.9% (12)
Fair 46.4% (13)
Poor 10.7% (3)
Camden County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,750 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 917 crossings a day against 3,879 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 28 of 28 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
17.9% of Camden County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
5 of the 28 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 42.9% 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 65.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR1224 over JOYCE CREEK, built 1951, carries 1,800 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 2,750 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Camden County's bridges were built
28 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s 3
1950–1959
3 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s 1
1990–1999
1 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
6 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 35.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1989) matches the North Carolina average (1986).
How Camden County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Camden County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.7% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1996 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dare County | 40 | 47.5% | 42.5% | 10% | 2000 |
| Perquimans County | 39 | 56.4% | 41% | 2.6% | 1996 |
| Chowan County | 38 | 63.2% | 34.2% | 2.6% | 1995 |
| Tyrrell County | 28 | 50% | 35.7% | 14.3% | 1994 |
| Camden County (this page) | 28 | 42.9% | 46.4% | 10.7% | 1989 |
| Currituck County | 22 | 40.9% | 59.1% | 0% | 1997 |
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 Camden 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 Camden County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NC (28 bridges here).
- Crowley County, CO · 28 bridges
- Dolores County, CO · 28 bridges
- Lafayette County, FL · 28 bridges
- Union County, FL · 28 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1989 here).
- Harris County, TX · avg 1989 · 4,029 bridges
- Buffalo County, NE · avg 1989 · 459 bridges
- Brazos County, TX · avg 1989 · 370 bridges
- Dubuque County, IA · avg 1989 · 346 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
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.