Total bridges
308
Public highway bridges in Surry County
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.
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.
When Surry County's bridges were built
308 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 11
1930–1939
11 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 20
1950–1959
20 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
69 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
54 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
30 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
51 bridges
- 2000s 26
2000–2009
26 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
29 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
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.
| 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 bridges (308)
NC89
PoorOver: BEAVERDAM CREEK
.4 MI.W.JCT.SR1345, Surry, NC
Built 1936 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 5,400
US52 SBL
PoorOver: TOMS CREEK
1.5 MI.N.JCT.NC268, Surry, NC
Built 1960 Load: 46.2 t ADT: 15,750
SR1123
PoorOver: SNOW CREEK
.3 MI.W.JCT.SR1100, Surry, NC
Built 1960 Load: 48.0 t ADT: 290
US21B
PoorOver: YADKIN RIVER
.28 MI.S.JCT.NC268, Surry, NC
Built 1971 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 12,000
SR2200
PoorOver: LITTLE BEAVER CREEK
.4 MI.N.JCT.NC268, Surry, NC
Built 1981 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 250
SR1103
PoorOver: WHITEOAK BRANCH
.3 MI.N.JCT.SR1104, Surry, NC
Built 1983 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 140
SR1740
PoorOver: CHAMP CREEK
.4 MI.E.JCT.SR1739, Surry, NC
Built 1991 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 200
SR1407
PoorOver: SAGE CREEK
1 MI.W.JCT.NC89, Surry, NC
Built 1985 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 450
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.