County profile · official public datasets

Randolph County, NC

401 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.6% rated Good, 52.9% Fair, 1.5% Poor.

401
Public bridges: 45.6%
Good condition: 1.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 12%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.5%
Poor-condition share: 401
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Randolph County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Randolph County ranks #12 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Randolph County, North Carolina contains 401 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.6% are rated “Good,” 52.9% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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

401

Public highway bridges in Randolph County

Good condition

45.6%

183 of 401 rated 7-9

Fair condition

52.9%

212 of 401 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.5%

6 of 401 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#12 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 401 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45.6% (183)

Fair

52.9% (212)

Poor

1.5% (6)

Randolph County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,540 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,423 crossings a day against 2,191 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 401 of 401 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.4% of Randolph County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

130 of the 401 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 45.6% 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 56.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1558 over H.PT. THOMASVILLE DEN.RR, built 1966, carries 4,800 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 8,540 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

10
1930s

7
1940s

3
1950s

35
1960s

51
1970s

35
1980s

44
1990s

64
2000s

52
2010s

88
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 88 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1988) matches the North Carolina average (1986).

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Randolph County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1988 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 Randolph County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Forsyth County	454	41.2%	49.8%	9%	1985
Randolph County (this page)	401	45.6%	52.9%	1.5%	1988
Union County	353	46.5%	49.3%	4.2%	1991
Wilkes County	349	32.1%	53.3%	14.6%	1983
Cumberland County	348	67.2%	31.9%	0.9%	1992
Davidson County	340	42.9%	52.9%	4.1%	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 Randolph 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 Randolph County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (401 bridges here).

San Luis Obispo County, CA · 401 bridges
Vernon County, MO · 401 bridges
Jackson County, OR · 401 bridges
Marshall County, KS · 402 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Grant County, OK · avg 1988 · 476 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges

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

All 401 Good 183 Fair 212 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (183)

Sort:

Randolph County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Randolph County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,540 vehicle crossings a day

32.4% of Randolph County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 56.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Randolph 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 (183)

SR1163(UNION CH)

SR1927

I74 US311 W

I74 US311E

SR2987

SR1107

SR2481

SR1504

SR1479

SR3120

SR1595

SR2215

SR2611

SR1175

SR2824

SR2182

SR2141

SR1340

SR1119

SR3006

SR1341

SR2456

SR2475

SR2474

SR2634

SR2654

SR1610

SR1145

SR 3006

US64BYP

SR2442

US64BYP FUTURE

SR1005

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