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.

1920s

6
1930s

6
1940s

7
1950s

55
1960s

45
1970s

30
1980s

26
1990s

27
2000s

21
2010s

35
2020s

12

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.

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	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Haywood County	286	29.7%	53.8%	16.4%	1975
Robeson County	285	52.6%	46.3%	1.1%	1990
Cleveland County (this page)	270	39.3%	50.4%	10.4%	1978
Nash County	260	35%	60.4%	4.6%	1983
Ashe County	247	33.6%	41.7%	24.7%	1984
Henderson County	245	35.5%	55.5%	9%	1979

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).

Bossier County, LA · 270 bridges
Morgan County, AL · 271 bridges
Yolo County, CA · 271 bridges
Yazoo County, MS · 271 bridges

Similar average build year

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

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All bridges (270)

Sort:

Cleveland County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

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

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

One structure carries 14% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cleveland 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 (270)

US74 BYP EBL

SR2226

SR1181

SR1330

SR1325

SR1315SR 1315

US74 BYP (WBL)

SR2033

SR2245

SR1619

SR1662

SR1627

SR1161

US74BYP. WBL

US74BYP. EBL

SR1603

METCALF ROAD

SR2245

SR1184

SR1159

U.S. 74 RAMP

SR1827

NC161

SR2283

US74 BYP WBL

NC150

SR1323

SR1516

SR1352

NC18

US74 SHELBY BYPAS

SR1525

SR1337

US74 BYP (EBL)

NC 226

SR1005

SR1379

SR1804

SR1350

SR1518

SR1371

SR1005

US74 BUS

SR1639

SR1913

SR2014

SR1001

SR1632

NC226

SR1517

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