County profile · official public datasets

Wayne County, NC

208 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.8% rated Good, 51.9% Fair, 4.3% Poor.

208
Public bridges: 43.8%
Good condition: 4.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wayne County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 47%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.3%
Poor-condition share: 208
public highway bridges: 1991
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.

Wayne County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wayne County ranks #47 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.3%). Wayne County, North Carolina contains 208 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.8% are rated “Good,” 51.9% “Fair,” and 4.3% “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

208

Public highway bridges in Wayne County

Good condition

43.8%

91 of 208 rated 7-9

Fair condition

51.9%

108 of 208 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.3%

9 of 208 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#47 of 100

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

Condition distribution

Share of 208 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.8% (91)

Fair

51.9% (108)

Poor

4.3% (9)

Wayne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,500 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,833 crossings a day against 4,692 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 208 of 208 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

28.8% of Wayne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

60 of the 208 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 43.8% 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 30.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR2075 over US13 US117 ALT, built 1958, carries 5,000 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 16,500 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1940s

1
1950s

20
1960s

20
1970s

23
1980s

11
1990s

23
2000s

39
2010s

57
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 57 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1991, 5 years newer than the North Carolina average of 1986.

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

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Wayne County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1991 against a peer-group mean of 1987 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 Wayne County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Duplin County	208	33.2%	59.1%	7.7%	1988
Wayne County (this page)	208	43.8%	51.9%	4.3%	1991
Caldwell County	201	35.8%	55.7%	8.5%	1983
Watauga County	200	43.5%	47%	9.5%	1984
Sampson County	196	50%	46.9%	3.1%	1994
Wilson County	195	48.2%	50.8%	1%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (208 bridges here).

Muscogee County, GA · 208 bridges
Posey County, IN · 208 bridges
Marshall County, KY · 208 bridges
Caldwell County, MO · 208 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1991 here).

Denver County, CO · avg 1991 · 458 bridges
Baldwin County, AL · avg 1991 · 381 bridges
Rock County, MN · avg 1991 · 265 bridges
Alcorn County, MS · avg 1991 · 213 bridges

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

All 208 Good 91 Fair 108 Poor 9

Good-condition bridges (91)

Sort:

Wayne County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wayne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,500 vehicle crossings a day

28.8% of Wayne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 30.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wayne 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 (91)

SR1937

WAYNE AVE.

SR1003

SR1127

SR1537

US70EBYP.

US70W

SR1719

SR1353

SR1353

SR1006

NC581

SR1007

I795S

SR1705

NC111

SLOCUMB ST.(SR1920

I795N

SR1313

SR1730

SR1714

SR1343

SR1224

SR1009

SR1948

SR1117

SR1754

NC222

SR1754

SR1513

SR1102

SR1532

SR1130

SR1127

US70W.BYP NC44W

I70E.BYP NC44

SR2234

SR1227

I795S

SR1317

SR1008

SR1342

I795N

US13

SR1120

I795S

US70W.BYP

SR1708

SR1958

SR1556

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