County profile · official public datasets

Cherokee County, NC

163 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.7% rated Good, 57.1% Fair, 4.3% Poor.

163
Public bridges: 38.7%
Good condition: 4.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cherokee County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 45%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.3%
Poor-condition share: 163
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Cherokee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cherokee County ranks #45 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.3%). Cherokee County, North Carolina contains 163 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.7% are rated “Good,” 57.1% “Fair,” and 4.3% “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

163

Public highway bridges in Cherokee County

Good condition

38.7%

63 of 163 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.1%

93 of 163 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.3%

7 of 163 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#45 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 163 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.7% (63)

Fair

57.1% (93)

Poor

4.3% (7)

Cherokee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,440 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 920 crossings a day against 2,455 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 163 of 163 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

44.2% of Cherokee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

72 of the 163 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 38.7% 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 45% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1548 over HIWASSEE RIVER, built 1932, carries 2,900 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,440 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

4
1940s

6
1950s

23
1960s

30
1970s

24
1980s

22
1990s

11
2000s

16
2010s

17
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 30 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1977, 9 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Cherokee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 8 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cherokee County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Yadkin County	168	32.7%	57.7%	9.5%	1986
Brunswick County	166	39.2%	54.8%	6%	1991
Stanly County	163	57.7%	39.3%	3.1%	1985
Yancey County	163	36.2%	47.2%	16.6%	1982
Cherokee County (this page)	163	38.7%	57.1%	4.3%	1977
Transylvania County	162	40.7%	45.7%	13.6%	1981

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (163 bridges here).

Mercer County, IL · 163 bridges
Jennings County, IN · 163 bridges
Wayne County, IA · 163 bridges
Jackson County, LA · 163 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 163 Good 63 Fair 93 Poor 7

All bridges (163)

Sort:

Cherokee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cherokee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,440 vehicle crossings a day

44.2% of Cherokee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 45% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cherokee 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 (163)

SR1147

SR1329

SR1340

NC141

US64

US 64

SR1598

SR1348

NC294

SR1347

SR1565

SR1505

SR1390

NC294

SR1556

SR1340

NC60

SR1564

NC141

SR1507

SR1127

SR1426

SR1340

US19 74 129 NBL

US19 74 129 SBL

SR1337

US19 74 129

US19 74 129

NC294

SR1101

US64

SR1314

SR1331

US19 74 129 NBL

SR1680

SR1505

SR1393

SR1338

SR1411

US64

NC60

US64

SR1509

SR1331

SR 1689 CASINO DR

SR1316

SR1350

SR1127

SR1331

US19 74 129 SBL

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