County profile · official public datasets

Person County, NC

106 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.7% rated Good, 60.4% Fair, 1.9% Poor.

106
Public bridges: 37.7%
Good condition: 1.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Person County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 17%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.9%
Poor-condition share: 106
public highway bridges: 1986
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.

Person County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Person County ranks #17 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.9%). Person County, North Carolina contains 106 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.7% are rated “Good,” 60.4% “Fair,” and 1.9% “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

106

Public highway bridges in Person County

Good condition

37.7%

40 of 106 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.4%

64 of 106 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.9%

2 of 106 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#17 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 106 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.7% (40)

Fair

60.4% (64)

Poor

1.9% (2)

Person County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,520 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,260 crossings a day against 1,582 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 106 of 106 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

30.2% of Person County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

32 of the 106 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 37.7% 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 83.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1715 over FLAT RIVER CRK, built 1951, carries 2,100 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,520 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

9
1960s

10
1970s

10
1980s

14
1990s

26
2000s

6
2010s

23
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1986) matches the North Carolina average (1986).

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Person County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 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 Person County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Pender County	112	33.9%	63.4%	2.7%	1983
Avery County	108	25.9%	64.8%	9.3%	1983
Alexander County	107	52.3%	43%	4.7%	1990
Person County (this page)	106	37.7%	60.4%	1.9%	1986
Scotland County	101	44.6%	54.5%	1%	1983
Lee County	98	57.1%	42.9%	0%	1989

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (106 bridges here).

Ashley County, AR · 106 bridges
Baca County, CO · 106 bridges
Warren County, KY · 106 bridges
Lincoln County, MN · 106 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1986 here).

El Paso County, TX · avg 1986 · 783 bridges
Caddo County, LA · avg 1986 · 682 bridges
Weld County, CO · avg 1986 · 614 bridges
Polk County, IA · avg 1986 · 545 bridges

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

All 106 Good 40 Fair 64 Poor 2

Fair-condition bridges (64)

Sort:

Person County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Person County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,520 vehicle crossings a day

30.2% of Person County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 83.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Person 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 (64)

SR1325

SR1138

SR1715

SR1565

SR1194

SR1512

US158

NC49

SR1322

SR1715

SR1532

SR1326

NC57

US158

NC157

US501

US501

SR1125

SR1337

SR1567

US501 NC57

NC49

NC49

SR1721

SR1120

US501 NBL

SR1322

SR1721

SR1336

NC157

SR1111

SR1109

SR1351

SR1316

NC57

SR1313

NC57

NC57

SR1737

SR1112

SR1439

SR1733

SR1708

SR1556

US501S NC57

SR1719

SR1567

SR1108

SR1704

NC57

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