Total bridges
285
Public highway bridges in Robeson County
County profile · official public datasets
Robeson County, NC
285 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.6% rated Good, 46.3% Fair, 1.1% Poor.
- 285
- Public bridges
- 52.6%
- Good condition
- 1.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Robeson County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 7%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 285
- public highway bridges
- 1990
- 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.
Robeson County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Robeson County ranks #7 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.1%). Robeson County, North Carolina contains 285 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.6% are rated “Good,” 46.3% “Fair,” and 1.1% “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
52.6%
150 of 285 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46.3%
132 of 285 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.1%
3 of 285 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#7 of 100
Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 285 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 52.6% (150)
Fair 46.3% (132)
Poor 1.1% (3)
Robeson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,100 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,700 crossings a day against 3,646 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 285 of 285 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
29.8% of Robeson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
85 of the 285 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 52.6% 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 92.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NC41 NC72 over LUMBER RIVER, built 1934, carries 13,000 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 14,100 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Robeson County's bridges were built
285 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
40 bridges
- 1960s 19
1960–1969
19 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
30 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
27 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
41 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
46 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
55 bridges
- 2020s 21
2020–2029
21 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 55 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the North Carolina average (1986).
How Robeson County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Robeson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.1% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 12 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surry County | 308 | 28.9% | 62% | 9.1% | 1979 |
| Rutherford County | 298 | 40.3% | 47.3% | 12.4% | 1974 |
| Haywood County | 286 | 29.7% | 53.8% | 16.4% | 1975 |
| Robeson County (this page) | 285 | 52.6% | 46.3% | 1.1% | 1990 |
| Cleveland County | 270 | 39.3% | 50.4% | 10.4% | 1978 |
| Nash County | 260 | 35% | 60.4% | 4.6% | 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 Robeson 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 Robeson County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NC (285 bridges here).
- Washington County, LA · 285 bridges
- Platte County, MO · 285 bridges
- Bryan County, OK · 286 bridges
- Logan County, OK · 284 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1990 here).
- Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
- Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
- Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
- Brazoria County, TX · avg 1990 · 618 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
NC41 NC72
PoorOver: LUMBER RIVER
100 W. OF JCT.SR1536, Robeson, NC
Built 1934 Load: 25.4 t ADT: 13,000
SR2204
PoorOver: JACOB SWAMP WATERSHED
100 MI N. OF JCT. SR2203, Robeson, NC
Built 1979 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 1,000
SR2266
PoorOver: BAY BRANCH
0.3 MI. S. JCT. NC130, Robeson, NC
Built 1994 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 100
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.