County profile · official public datasets

Northampton County, NC

83 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.3% rated Good, 65.1% Fair, 3.6% Poor.

83
Public bridges: 31.3%
Good condition: 3.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 38%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.6%
Poor-condition share: 83
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Northampton County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Northampton County ranks #38 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.6%). Northampton County, North Carolina contains 83 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.3% are rated “Good,” 65.1% “Fair,” and 3.6% “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

Public highway bridges in Northampton County

Good condition

31.3%

26 of 83 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.1%

54 of 83 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.6%

3 of 83 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#38 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 83 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

31.3% (26)

Fair

65.1% (54)

Poor

3.6% (3)

Northampton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,030 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 343 crossings a day against 732 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 83 of 83 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

34.9% of Northampton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

29 of the 83 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 31.3% 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 50.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1344 over CORDUROY SWAMP, built 1953, carries 520 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,030 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1940s

1
1950s

10
1960s

12
1970s

8
1980s

14
1990s

12
2000s

8
2010s

9
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Northampton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1991 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Northampton County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Caswell County	90	58.9%	35.6%	5.6%	1991
Warren County	84	47.6%	47.6%	4.8%	1985
Northampton County (this page)	83	31.3%	65.1%	3.6%	1981
Jones County	82	51.2%	47.6%	1.2%	1996
Hyde County	75	44%	49.3%	6.7%	1998
Vance County	75	37.3%	56%	6.7%	1983

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (83 bridges here).

Desha County, AR · 83 bridges
Little River County, AR · 83 bridges
Wayne County, GA · 83 bridges
Boundary County, ID · 83 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 83 Good 26 Fair 54 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (54)

Sort:

Northampton County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Northampton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,030 vehicle crossings a day

34.9% of Northampton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Northampton 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 (54)

SR1312

SR1500

SR1510

SR1504

SR1328

NC305

NC35

SR1325

SR1119

NC35

NC35

US258

SR1508

NC35

SR1311

SR1202

NC305

SR1214

US158

NC186

NC46

NC305

NC305

US301

US258

US258

US158

SR1126

SR1201

I95 SBL

SR1358

NC35

US258 NC561

US258

US158 US301

NC46

NC48

I95N

NC35

SR1341

NC46 NC186

SR1328

US258 NC561

SR1502

SR1106

SR1346

SR1510

SR1502

NC35

NC48

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