County profile · official public datasets

Guilford County, NC

736 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 51.8% rated Good, 42.9% Fair, 5.3% Poor.

736
Public bridges: 51.8%
Good condition: 5.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Guilford County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

55th
of 100 on Poor share: 5.3%
Poor-condition share: 736
public highway bridges: 1990
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.

Guilford County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Guilford County ranks #55 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.3%). Guilford County, North Carolina contains 736 public highway bridges. Roughly 51.8% are rated “Good,” 42.9% “Fair,” and 5.3% “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

736

Public highway bridges in Guilford County

Good condition

51.8%

381 of 736 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42.9%

316 of 736 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.3%

39 of 736 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#55 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 736 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

51.8% (381)

Fair

42.9% (316)

Poor

5.3% (39)

Guilford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 403,430 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 10,344 crossings a day against 10,725 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 736 of 736 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

28.5% of Guilford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

210 of the 736 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 51.8% 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 12.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR2254 over SOUTHERN RAILROAD, built 1968, carries 52,000 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 39-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 403,430 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

12
1930s

12
1940s

9
1950s

71
1960s

70
1970s

66
1980s

63
1990s

89
2000s

181
2010s

132
2020s

31

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 181 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the North Carolina average (1986).

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Guilford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1986 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 Guilford County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Wake County	760	53.8%	40.4%	5.8%	1992
Mecklenburg County	746	46.4%	51.1%	2.5%	1989
Guilford County (this page)	736	51.8%	42.9%	5.3%	1990
Buncombe County	555	34.6%	58.4%	7%	1978
Forsyth County	454	41.2%	49.8%	9%	1985
Randolph County	401	45.6%	52.9%	1.5%	1988

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (736 bridges here).

Sacramento County, CA · 740 bridges
Champaign County, IL · 727 bridges
Fairfax County, VA · 751 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · 721 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1990 here).

Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
Brazoria County, TX · avg 1990 · 618 bridges

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

All 736 Good 381 Fair 316 Poor 39

Fair-condition bridges (316)

Sort:

Guilford County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Guilford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 403,430 vehicle crossings a day

28.5% of Guilford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 12.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Guilford 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

Fair-condition bridges (316)

S.EUGENE ST.

I40 RAMP

SR1001

MARTIN LUTHER KING

GREEN VALLEY RD.

S.ELM-EUGENE ST.

NC68

SR2711

I40 I85 BUS WBL

ELKHART DR/HOLLY D

S.ELM-EUGENE ST.

PHILLIPS AVENUE

16TH STREET

I85 S

REEDY FORK PARKWAY

SR2523

SR1129

SR3314

SR3045

I40 I85

SR1961

I74 EBL US311 SBL

NEALTOWN RD

US220

SR4121

NC68

WEST FRIENDLY AVE.

NC68

NC61

SR3056

US70

I40 85 US29 70 220

I40 RAMP

I40 RAMPS

I40 I85B US29N 70E

US29

I40 & I85 SR3143

YANCEYVILLE STREET

CRIDLAND RD

GATEWOOD AVENUE

ROCKFORD ROAD

FORREST STREET

NORTH HOLDEN ROAD

E. CONE BLVD.

FRIENDLY AVENUE

CREEK RIDGE ROAD

SR1113

SR4771

SR3549

SR1352

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