County profile · official public datasets

Pitt County, NC

228 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 64.5% rated Good, 32% Fair, 3.5% Poor.

228
Public bridges: 64.5%
Good condition: 3.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pitt 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 37%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.5%
Poor-condition share: 228
public highway bridges: 1994
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.

Pitt County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pitt County ranks #37 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.5%). Pitt County, North Carolina contains 228 public highway bridges. Roughly 64.5% are rated “Good,” 32% “Fair,” and 3.5% “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

228

Public highway bridges in Pitt County

Good condition

64.5%

147 of 228 rated 7-9

Fair condition

32%

73 of 228 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.5%

8 of 228 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#37 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 228 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

64.5% (147)

Fair

32% (73)

Poor

3.5% (8)

Pitt County's Poor-condition bridges carry 25,870 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,234 crossings a day against 5,887 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 228 of 228 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

21.9% of Pitt County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 228 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 64.5% 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 52.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US13 over LITTLE CONTENTNEA CREEK, built 1965, carries 13,500 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 25,870 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

14
1960s

21
1970s

20
1980s

21
1990s

50
2000s

18
2010s

73
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 73 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 32% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1994, 8 years newer than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Pitt County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1994 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 11 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pitt County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Gaston County	232	36.6%	58.2%	5.2%	1980
Burke County	231	43.3%	51.1%	5.6%	1981
Rockingham County	229	48.5%	39.7%	11.8%	1987
Pitt County (this page)	228	64.5%	32%	3.5%	1994
Columbus County	226	60.6%	38.1%	1.3%	1994
Macon County	223	30%	52.5%	17.5%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (228 bridges here).

Jackson County, IL · 228 bridges
Franklin County, IA · 228 bridges
Attala County, MS · 228 bridges
Saratoga County, NY · 228 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1994 here).

Denton County, TX · avg 1994 · 991 bridges
St. Charles County, MO · avg 1994 · 417 bridges
Rock County, WI · avg 1994 · 304 bridges
Pasco County, FL · avg 1994 · 151 bridges

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

All 228 Good 147 Fair 73 Poor 8

Good-condition bridges (147)

Sort:

Pitt County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pitt County's Poor-condition bridges carry 25,870 vehicle crossings a day

21.9% of Pitt County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 52.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pitt 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

Good-condition bridges (147)

SR1745

SR1529

NC33

SR1598

NC11/NC43/NC903

SR1255

HOOKER ROAD

OXFORD ROAD

SR1149

SR1250

SR1250

SR1707

US13 NC11S

US13 US264

US13/NC11 BYP. NBL

US13/NC11 BYP SB

SR2227

US258BYP

SR1139

US13/NC11 N

SR1251

SR1588

NC121

I-587E US264E

US264 EBL

US264E BYP.

SR1520

SR1418

SR1202

US264W

NC903

SR1785

SR1229

I-587W US264W

US264

SR1611

SR1711

SR1200

SR1530

SR1552

SR1255

SR1210

SR1565

SR1923

SR1214

SR1726

SR1591

SR1777

SR1217

SR1200

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