County profile · official public datasets

Cleveland County, NC

270 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.3% rated Good, 50.4% Fair, 10.4% Poor.

270
Public bridges
39.3%
Good condition
10.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cleveland 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.

82nd
of 100 on Poor share
10.4%
Poor-condition share
270
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.

Cleveland County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cleveland County ranks #82 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.4%). Cleveland County, North Carolina contains 270 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.3% are rated “Good,” 50.4% “Fair,” and 10.4% “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

270

Public highway bridges in Cleveland County

Good condition

39.3%

106 of 270 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50.4%

136 of 270 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10.4%

28 of 270 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#82 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 270 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
39.3% (106)
Fair
50.4% (136)
Poor
10.4% (28)

Cleveland County's Poor-condition bridges carry 71,320 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,547 crossings a day against 3,151 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 270 of 270 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

51.9% of Cleveland County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

140 of the 270 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 39.3% 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 14% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US74 EBL over SANDY RUN CREEK, built 1925, carries 10,000 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 28-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 71,320 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Cleveland County's bridges were built

270 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 55 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1978, 8 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Cleveland County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1982 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 Cleveland County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Haywood County 286 16.4%
Robeson County 285 1.1%
Cleveland County (this page) 270 10.4%
Nash County 260 4.6%
Ashe County 247 24.7%
Henderson County 245 9%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (270 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1978 here).

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

All 270 Good 106 Fair 136 Poor 28

Poor-condition bridges (28)

US74 BUS

Poor

Over: SEABOARD COAST LINE RR

0.1 MI. E. JCT. SR1167, Cleveland, NC

Built 1950 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 2,600

SR1639

Poor

Over: KNOB CREEK

0.5 MI. E. JCT. SR1640, Cleveland, NC

Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 250

SR1913

Poor

Over: SUCK CREEK

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1908, Cleveland, NC

Built 1966 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 220

SR2014

Poor

Over: LITTLE PERSIMMON CREEK

0.7 MI. N. JCT. SR2033, Cleveland, NC

Built 1970 Load: 9.9 t ADT: 880

SR1001

Poor

Over: POTTS CREEK

.3MI. S. JCT. WITH SR2033, Cleveland, NC

Built 1951 Load: 15.4 t ADT: 6,600

SR1632

Poor

Over: LITTLE KNOB CREEK

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1630, Cleveland, NC

Built 1953 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 300

NC226

Poor

Over: HINTON CREEK

0.3 MI. N. JCT. SR1393, Cleveland, NC

Built 1955 Load: 17.2 t ADT: 2,300

SR1517

Poor

Over: CROOKED RUN CREEK

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1518, Cleveland, NC

Built 1963 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 240

SR2033

Poor

Over: BUFFALO CREEK

0.2 MI. W. JCT. SR2044, Cleveland, NC

Built 1955 Load: 19.9 t ADT: 5,200

SR2249

Poor

Over: BEASON CREEK

0.4 MI. N. JCT. SR2245, Cleveland, NC

Built 1976 Load: 19.9 t ADT: 1,000

SR1167

Poor

Over: SCL RR

0.1 MI. S. JCT. US74 BUS, Cleveland, NC

Built 1925 Load: 20.8 t ADT: 1,000

SR1002

Poor

Over: ASHWORTH CREEK

0.5 MI. E. JCT. SR1209, Cleveland, NC

Built 1949 Load: 22.6 t ADT: 980

SR1850

Poor

Over: FIRST BROAD RIVER

0.5 MI. S. JCT. SR1344, Cleveland, NC

Built 1955 Load: 22.6 t ADT: 2,200

SR1363

Poor

Over: BRUSHY CREEK

0.1 MI. S. JCT. SR1365, Cleveland, NC

Built 1967 Load: 23.5 t ADT: 850

US74 EBL

Poor

Over: SANDY RUN CREEK

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1167, Cleveland, NC

Built 1925 Load: 25.4 t ADT: 10,000

SR1325

Poor

Over: UT TO MAYNE CREEK

0.1 MI. N. JCT. SR1334, Cleveland, NC

Built 1953 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 110

NC180

Poor

Over: CSX RR

0.3 MI. N. JCT. NC150, Cleveland, NC

Built 1950 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 8,700

SR1308

Poor

Over: BRUSHY CREEK

0.1 MI. W. JCT. SR1306, Cleveland, NC

Built 1974 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 1,600

SR1337

Poor

Over: UT TO FIRST BROAD RIVER

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1005, Cleveland, NC

Built 1971 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 2,400

SR1514

Poor

Over: CROOKED RUN CREEK

0.7 MI. W. JCT. SR1004, Cleveland, NC

Built 1971 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 140

SR1824

Poor

Over: SHOAL ROCK CREEK

0.4 MI. N. JCT. SR1005, Cleveland, NC

Built 1957 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 240

SR1305

Poor

Over: BRUSHY CREEK

0.2 MI. W. JCT. NC226, Cleveland, NC

Built 1969 Load: 29.9 t ADT: 2,900

NC150

Poor

Over: BUFFALO CREEK

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1942, Cleveland, NC

Built 1955 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 8,900

SR1314

Poor

Over: BRANCH OF BEAVERDAM CREE

0.5 MI. W. JCT. SR1321, Cleveland, NC

Built 1958 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 350

SR1121

Poor

Over: FIRST BROAD RIVER

0.2 MI. N. JCT. SR1122, Cleveland, NC

Built 1967 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 700

US74 WBL

Poor

Over: SANDY RUN

0.3 MI. E. JCT. SR1167, Cleveland, NC

Built 1965 Load: 44.4 t ADT: 10,000

SR2017

Poor

Over: LITTLE PERSIMMON CREEK

0.2 MI. S. JCT. SR2015, Cleveland, NC

Built 1990 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 100

SR2013

Poor

Over: PERSIMMON CREEK

0.6 MI. S. JCT. SR2012, Cleveland, NC

Built 1990 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 560

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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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.