County profile · official public datasets

Benton County, TN

147 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 33.3% rated Good, 65.3% Fair, 1.4% Poor.

147
Public bridges: 33.3%
Good condition: 1.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Benton County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 12%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.4%
Poor-condition share: 147
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.

Benton County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Benton County ranks #11 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.4%). Benton County, Tennessee contains 147 public highway bridges. Roughly 33.3% are rated “Good,” 65.3% “Fair,” and 1.4% “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

147

Public highway bridges in Benton County

Good condition

33.3%

49 of 147 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.3%

96 of 147 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.4%

2 of 147 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#11 of 95

Among Tennessee counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 147 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

33.3% (49)

Fair

65.3% (96)

Poor

1.4% (2)

Benton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,683 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 842 crossings a day against 1,888 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 147 of 147 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.1% of Benton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

53 of the 147 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 33.3% 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 92.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA 1751 (SA 0314) over CHARLIE CREEK, built 1975, carries 1,563 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,683 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1940s

6
1950s

17
1960s

17
1970s

26
1980s

36
1990s

24
2000s

11
2010s

4
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

How Benton County compares with Tennessee's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Benton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 94 Tennessee counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Benton County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Franklin County	157	42.7%	53.5%	3.8%	1980
Perry County	153	23.5%	75.2%	1.3%	1979
Benton County (this page)	147	33.3%	65.3%	1.4%	1979
Monroe County	145	62.1%	33.8%	4.1%	1976
Polk County	140	55%	37.1%	7.9%	1979
Campbell County	137	24.8%	71.5%	3.6%	1973

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 Benton 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 Benton County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (147 bridges here).

Barren County, KY · 147 bridges
Avoyelles County, LA · 147 bridges
Marquette County, MI · 147 bridges
Carlton County, MN · 147 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (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 147 Good 49 Fair 96 Poor 2

Fair-condition bridges (96)

Sort:

Benton County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Benton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,683 vehicle crossings a day

36.1% of Benton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 92.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Benton County compares with Tennessee'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 (96)

FAS 147

NFA A439

FAP 1

I40

NFA 911 (SA 0311)

NFA A307

NFA 907 (SA 0302)

FAS 391

NFA 1757 (SA 0317)

NFA 911 (SA 0311)

FAP 1

NFA 911 (SA 0311)

NFA 1764

FAS 191

NFA 905 (SA 0304)

FAS 191

FAP 1 350902U

FAP 1

NFA 1753

FAS 147

NFA 911 (SA 0311)

NFA 911 (SA 0311)

NFA 1749

FAS 191

NFA 1749

NFA 1759 (SA 0318)

FAP 69

FAS 192

FAS 192

FAP 69 350896T

NFA 891 (SA 0305)

NFA 1743 (SA 0301)

NFA 1745

NFA 1753

NFA 1757 (SA 0317)

NFA 1764

NFA 1770 (SA 0313)

FAS 147

NFA A014

NFA A025

NFA A050

NFA A052

NFA A070

NFA A101

NFA A101

NFA A145

NFA A173

NFA A176

NFA A176

NFA A181

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