County profile · official public datasets

Stokes County, NC

150 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.7% rated Good, 51.3% Fair, 10% Poor.

150
Public bridges: 38.7%
Good condition: 10%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

79th
of 100 on Poor share: 10%
Poor-condition share: 150
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.

Stokes County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stokes County ranks #79 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10%). Stokes County, North Carolina contains 150 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.7% are rated “Good,” 51.3% “Fair,” and 10% “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

150

Public highway bridges in Stokes County

Good condition

38.7%

58 of 150 rated 7-9

Fair condition

51.3%

77 of 150 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10%

15 of 150 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#79 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 150 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.7% (58)

Fair

51.3% (77)

Poor

10% (15)

Stokes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,740 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 849 crossings a day against 1,563 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 150 of 150 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26% of Stokes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

39 of the 150 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 38.7% 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 36.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR1147 over US52, built 1960, carries 4,700 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 12,740 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

14
1960s

13
1970s

10
1980s

26
1990s

31
2000s

20
2010s

23
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1988) matches the North Carolina average (1986).

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Stokes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10% Poor share is the 6th-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 Stokes County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Beaufort County	154	51.9%	40.9%	7.1%	1996
Montgomery County	151	51%	47.7%	1.3%	1986
Stokes County (this page)	150	38.7%	51.3%	10%	1988
Granville County	149	32.9%	61.1%	6%	1984
Craven County	147	46.9%	49%	4.1%	1988
Edgecombe County	147	38.8%	57.8%	3.4%	1986

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (150 bridges here).

Owen County, IN · 150 bridges
Lamar County, MS · 150 bridges
Jefferson County, OK · 150 bridges
Coleman County, TX · 150 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 150 Good 58 Fair 77 Poor 15

Good-condition bridges (58)

Sort:

Stokes County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Stokes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,740 vehicle crossings a day

26% of Stokes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 36.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Stokes 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 (58)

NC8

NC8 NC89

SR1935

NC66

US311

SR1998

SR1653

US311

SR1403

SR1673

SR1103

SR1945

SR1674

SR1619

SR1674

SR1651

SR1617

SR1484

NC89

SR1961

SR1497

SR1127

NC8

SR1998

SR1400

SR1707

SR1926

US52 NBL

US52 SBL

SR1697

SR1484

SR1668

SR1683

SR1636

SR1647

SR1136

SR1973

SR1695

SR1467

US311

NC8 & NC89

SR1681

SR1166

SR1128

NC704

SR1433

SR1105

SR1908

SR1105

SR2109

Related