County profile · official public datasets

Stanly County, NC

163 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.7% rated Good, 39.3% Fair, 3.1% Poor.

163
Public bridges: 57.7%
Good condition: 3.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Stanly County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 29%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.1%
Poor-condition share: 163
public highway bridges: 1985
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.

Stanly County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stanly County ranks #29 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.1%). Stanly County, North Carolina contains 163 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.7% are rated “Good,” 39.3% “Fair,” and 3.1% “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.

Total bridges

163

Public highway bridges in Stanly County

Good condition

57.7%

94 of 163 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.3%

64 of 163 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.1%

5 of 163 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#29 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 163 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57.7% (94)

Fair

39.3% (64)

Poor

3.1% (5)

Stanly County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,450 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 890 crossings a day against 2,794 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 163 of 163 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.5% of Stanly County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

53 of the 163 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 57.7% 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 44.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1968 over STONY RUN CREEK, built 1961, carries 2,000 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,450 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

7
1950s

20
1960s

19
1970s

16
1980s

25
1990s

23
2000s

15
2010s

31
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1985) matches the North Carolina average (1986).

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Stanly County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.1% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1983 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 Stanly County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Yadkin County	168	32.7%	57.7%	9.5%	1986
Brunswick County	166	39.2%	54.8%	6%	1991
Cherokee County	163	38.7%	57.1%	4.3%	1977
Yancey County	163	36.2%	47.2%	16.6%	1982
Stanly County (this page)	163	57.7%	39.3%	3.1%	1985
Transylvania County	162	40.7%	45.7%	13.6%	1981

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (163 bridges here).

Mercer County, IL · 163 bridges
Jennings County, IN · 163 bridges
Wayne County, IA · 163 bridges
Jackson County, LA · 163 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1985 here).

Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
Lancaster County, NE · avg 1985 · 661 bridges
Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges

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

All 163 Good 94 Fair 64 Poor 5

All bridges (163)

Sort:

Stanly County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Stanly County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,450 vehicle crossings a day

32.5% of Stanly County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 44.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Stanly 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

All bridges (163)

SR1535

SR1917

US52 NC24/27

SR1968

SR1918

SR1253

SR1421

SR1447

NC24 27 EBL

SR1654

SR1494

SR1435

SR1109

SR1228

SR1726

NC49

SR1136

SR1535

SR1100

SR1903

SR1650

SR1505

SR1720

SR1507

SR1650

SR1741

SR1130

SR1104

SR1542

SR1103

SR1573

SR1455

SR1229

US52

SR1963

SR1230

SR1433

SR1934

SR1922

SR1730

SR1214

NC73

US52

US52

US52

SR1941

SR1722

SR1922

SR1923

SR1236

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