County profile · official public datasets

Surry County, NC

308 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28.9% rated Good, 62% Fair, 9.1% Poor.

308
Public bridges: 28.9%
Good condition: 9.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Surry County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

75th
of 100 on Poor share: 9.1%
Poor-condition share: 308
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Surry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Surry County ranks #75 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.1%). Surry County, North Carolina contains 308 public highway bridges. Roughly 28.9% are rated “Good,” 62% “Fair,” and 9.1% “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

308

Public highway bridges in Surry County

Good condition

28.9%

89 of 308 rated 7-9

Fair condition

62%

191 of 308 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.1%

28 of 308 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#75 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 308 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

28.9% (89)

Fair

62% (191)

Poor

9.1% (28)

Surry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 116,830 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,173 crossings a day against 2,577 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 308 of 308 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.8% of Surry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

135 of the 308 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 28.9% 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 24.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US52 over GRASSY CREEK, built 1962, carries 28,500 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 28-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 116,830 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

7
1930s

11
1940s

5
1950s

20
1960s

69
1970s

54
1980s

30
1990s

51
2000s

26
2010s

29
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 69 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 7 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Surry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1982 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 Surry County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Johnston County	318	42.1%	53.5%	4.4%	1989
Durham County	314	35.7%	60.8%	3.5%	1984
Surry County (this page)	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	285	52.6%	46.3%	1.1%	1990

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (308 bridges here).

Rockingham County, NH · 308 bridges
Falls County, TX · 308 bridges
Kittitas County, WA · 308 bridges
Mississippi County, AR · 309 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 308 Good 89 Fair 191 Poor 28

Fair-condition bridges (191)

Sort:

Surry County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Surry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 116,830 vehicle crossings a day

43.8% of Surry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 24.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Surry 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

Fair-condition bridges (191)

SR2067

SR1601

SR1835

SR2082

SR1330

SR1602

SR1624

SR1792

SR1345

SR2015

SR1338

SR1600

SR1157

SR1407

SR1338

SR1618

SR2038

SR2038

NC103

SR1003

NC89

NC89

NC268 BUS.

SR1822

SR1312

SR2012

SR1129

US52BUS

NC268 BUS.

SR2432

SR1131

SR2064

SR1122

SR1815

US52 NBL BYPASS

US52 NBL BYP

SR1397

SR2026

US52B

SR1121

US52

US52

US52

US52

I-77

SR1314

SR2258

I-74

NC104

US52B

Related