Total bridges
41
Public highway bridges in Gates County
County profile · official public datasets
Gates County, NC
41 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.9% rated Good, 53.7% Fair, 2.4% Poor.
- 41
- Public bridges
- 43.9%
- Good condition
- 2.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Gates County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- Top 21%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 41
- 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.
Gates County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Gates County ranks #21 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.4%). Gates County, North Carolina contains 41 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.9% are rated “Good,” 53.7% “Fair,” and 2.4% “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.
Good condition
43.9%
18 of 41 rated 7-9
Fair condition
53.7%
22 of 41 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.4%
1 of 41 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#21 of 100
Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 41 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.9% (18)
Fair 53.7% (22)
Poor 2.4% (1)
Gates County's Poor-condition bridges carry 150 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 150 crossings a day against 1,384 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 41 of 41 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
31.7% of Gates County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
13 of the 41 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 43.9% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR1116 over COLE CREEK, built 1975, carries 150 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 150 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Gates County's bridges were built
41 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1950s
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
6 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
5 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 2
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 11 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1989) matches the North Carolina average (1986).
How Gates County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Gates County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1995 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasquotank County | 54 | 59.3% | 38.9% | 1.9% | 1998 |
| Pamlico County | 45 | 33.3% | 48.9% | 17.8% | 1985 |
| Gates County (this page) | 41 | 43.9% | 53.7% | 2.4% | 1989 |
| 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 |
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 Gates 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 Gates County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NC (41 bridges here).
- Saguache County, CO · 41 bridges
- Echols County, GA · 41 bridges
- Pike County, GA · 41 bridges
- Ohio County, IN · 41 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 (1)
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.