County profile · official public datasets

Bledsoe County, TN

83 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.6% rated Good, 48.2% Fair, 1.2% Poor.

83
Public bridges: 50.6%
Good condition: 1.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bledsoe County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 9%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.2%
Poor-condition share: 83
public highway bridges: 1970
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.

Bledsoe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bledsoe County ranks #9 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.2%). Bledsoe County, Tennessee contains 83 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.6% are rated “Good,” 48.2% “Fair,” and 1.2% “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

Public highway bridges in Bledsoe County

Good condition

50.6%

42 of 83 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.2%

40 of 83 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.2%

1 of 83 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#9 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 83 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.6% (42)

Fair

48.2% (40)

Poor

1.2% (1)

Bledsoe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,090 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,090 crossings a day against 1,947 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 83 of 83 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

59% of Bledsoe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

49 of the 83 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 50.6% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA A474 over SEQUATCHIE RIVER, built 1925, carries 1,090 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,090 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

4
1940s

1
1950s

31
1960s

10
1970s

6
1980s

14
1990s

7
2000s

5
2010s

3
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 37.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 7 years older than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Bledsoe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bledsoe County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Grainger County	88	27.3%	68.2%	4.5%	1970
Trousdale County	88	70.5%	27.3%	2.3%	1979
Grundy County	85	49.4%	49.4%	1.2%	1969
Bledsoe County (this page)	83	50.6%	48.2%	1.2%	1970
Overton County	78	55.1%	41%	3.8%	1977
Meigs County	76	53.9%	42.1%	3.9%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (83 bridges here).

Desha County, AR · 83 bridges
Little River County, AR · 83 bridges
Wayne County, GA · 83 bridges
Boundary County, ID · 83 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1970 here).

Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges

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

All 83 Good 42 Fair 40 Poor 1

All bridges (83)

Sort:

Bledsoe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bledsoe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,090 vehicle crossings a day

59% of Bledsoe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bledsoe 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

All bridges (83)

NFA A136

NFA A116

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 1155 (SA 0409)

FAP 28

FAP 28

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 2233 (SA 0406)

FAP 30

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA A073

NFA A080

FAS 101

NFA 1155 (SA 0409)

FAP 28

FAP 28

NFA D761

FAP 28

NFA A093 (SA 0408)

FAS 284

FAP 28

NFA A131

FAS 284

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 2168 (SA 0402)

NFA 2172 (SA 0412)

NFA 2174

NFA A466

NFA A145

NFA A234 (SA 0415)

NFA A286

NFA A315

FAP 28

FAP 28

FAP 28

FAP 28

FAP 30

FAS 284

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 1155 (SA 0409)

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA 1155 (SA 0409)

FAP 28

NFA 1134 (SA 0405)

NFA A114

NFA A290

NFA 2233 (SA 0406)

FAP 28

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