County profile · official public datasets

Lenoir County, NC

145 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.4% rated Good, 44.8% Fair, 2.8% Poor.

145
Public bridges: 52.4%
Good condition: 2.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 26%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.8%
Poor-condition share: 145
public highway bridges: 1993
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.

Lenoir County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lenoir County ranks #26 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Lenoir County, North Carolina contains 145 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.4% are rated “Good,” 44.8% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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

145

Public highway bridges in Lenoir County

Good condition

52.4%

76 of 145 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.8%

65 of 145 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.8%

4 of 145 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#26 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 145 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

52.4% (76)

Fair

44.8% (65)

Poor

2.8% (4)

Lenoir County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,500 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,125 crossings a day against 3,126 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 145 of 145 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.2% of Lenoir County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

38 of the 145 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 52.4% 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 32.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NC55 over TROTTERS CREEK, built 1950, carries 2,800 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 8,500 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

5
1940s

1
1950s

9
1960s

19
1970s

9
1980s

16
1990s

9
2000s

19
2010s

41
2020s

17

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 41 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1993, 7 years newer than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Lenoir County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1993 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lenoir County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Montgomery County	151	51%	47.7%	1.3%	1986
Stokes County	150	38.7%	51.3%	10%	1988
Granville County	149	32.9%	61.1%	6%	1984
Craven County	147	46.9%	49%	4.1%	1988
Edgecombe County	147	38.8%	57.8%	3.4%	1986
Lenoir County (this page)	145	52.4%	44.8%	2.8%	1993

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (145 bridges here).

Dearborn County, IN · 145 bridges
Floyd County, IN · 145 bridges
McDonald County, MO · 145 bridges
Washington County, RI · 145 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1993 here).

Salt Lake County, UT · avg 1993 · 659 bridges
Marshall County, MS · avg 1993 · 255 bridges
Daviess County, IN · avg 1993 · 221 bridges
Scott County, MN · avg 1993 · 129 bridges

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

All 145 Good 76 Fair 65 Poor 4

All bridges (145)

Sort:

Lenoir County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lenoir County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,500 vehicle crossings a day

26.2% of Lenoir County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 32.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lenoir 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 (145)

SR1803

NC148E

NC148W

NC148

SR1603

NC148W

NC148

NC148E

NC148W

SR1922

US70

SR1121

SR1804

SR1913

NC148W/HAR.PKWY

NC148E/HAR.PKWY

NC148W

NC148E

US70 US258BUS NC58

SR1113

US70 US258BUS NC58

NC148W

NC148E

SR1324

NC903

NC148E

NC148 EBL

SR1603

NC55

SR1920

NC148W.RAMP

US70W

US70E

NC148

NC148W

NC148W

NC148E

NC148W

SR1389

SR1804

SR1324

NC903

NC55

SR1578

SR1141

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