Total bridges
154
Public highway bridges in Richmond County
County profile · official public datasets
Richmond County, NC
154 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.1% rated Good, 41.6% Fair, 1.3% Poor.
- 154
- Public bridges
- 57.1%
- Good condition
- 1.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Richmond County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 9%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 154
- 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.
Richmond County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Richmond County ranks #9 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Richmond County, North Carolina contains 154 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.1% are rated “Good,” 41.6% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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.
Good condition
57.1%
88 of 154 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.6%
64 of 154 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.3%
2 of 154 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#9 of 100
Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 154 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 57.1% (88)
Fair 41.6% (64)
Poor 1.3% (2)
Richmond County's Poor-condition bridges carry 200 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 100 crossings a day against 4,530 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 154 of 154 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
33.8% of Richmond County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
52 of the 154 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 57.1% 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 75% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR1971 over SOLOMONS CREEK, built 1963, carries 150 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 200 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Richmond County's bridges were built
154 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s 11
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
30 bridges
- 1970s 6
1970–1979
6 bridges
- 1980s 6
1980–1989
6 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
19 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
43 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
28 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 43 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1988) matches the North Carolina average (1986).
How Richmond County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Richmond County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 1st-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.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax County | 158 | 36.7% | 61.4% | 1.9% | 1984 |
| Beaufort County | 154 | 51.9% | 40.9% | 7.1% | 1996 |
| Richmond County (this page) | 154 | 57.1% | 41.6% | 1.3% | 1988 |
| 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 |
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 Richmond 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 Richmond County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NC (154 bridges here).
- Choctaw County, AL · 154 bridges
- Arkansas County, AR · 154 bridges
- Kootenai County, ID · 154 bridges
- Elk County, KS · 154 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.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.