County profile · official public datasets

Catawba County, NC

236 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.6% rated Good, 60.6% Fair, 6.8% Poor.

236
Public bridges: 32.6%
Good condition: 6.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Catawba 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.

65th
of 100 on Poor share: 6.8%
Poor-condition share: 236
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Catawba County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Catawba County ranks #65 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.8%). Catawba County, North Carolina contains 236 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.6% are rated “Good,” 60.6% “Fair,” and 6.8% “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 Catawba County

Good condition

32.6%

77 of 236 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.6%

143 of 236 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.8%

16 of 236 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#65 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

32.6% (77)

Fair

60.6% (143)

Poor

6.8% (16)

Catawba County's Poor-condition bridges carry 90,850 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5,678 crossings a day against 6,780 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.

36% of Catawba County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

85 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 32.6% 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 20.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I40 EBL over LYLE CREEK, built 1957, carries 18,250 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 90,850 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

1
1940s

4
1950s

35
1960s

27
1970s

46
1980s

21
1990s

53
2000s

22
2010s

21
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Catawba County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Catawba 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
Cabarrus County	236	53%	38.6%	8.5%	1993
Catawba County (this page)	236	32.6%	60.6%	6.8%	1981
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 Catawba 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 Catawba 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 (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 236 Good 77 Fair 143 Poor 16

Good-condition bridges (77)

Sort:

Catawba County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Catawba County's Poor-condition bridges carry 90,850 vehicle crossings a day

36% of Catawba County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 20.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Catawba 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

Good-condition bridges (77)

SR2007

NC16

SR1703

SR1002

I40

SR1400

SR2024

SR2024

8TH ST.LN.NW.

RIDGE DR.NE

SR1008

NC127

US321 SBL

NC18

SR1810

US321 NBL

NC16

SR1143

NC16

NC16

SR1486

SR1404

SR1722

SR2019

SR2012

SR1807

SR1491

SR1149

SR1734

SR1821

SR1711

SR 1131

SR1146

SR1818

SR1809

FALLING CREEK ROAD

SR1484

NC16

SR1007

NORTHERN DRIVE NW

NC16 SOUTH

SR1700

SR1005

SR1111

SR1727

SR1441

NC16

SR1002

SR1116

SR2030

Related