County profile · official public datasets

Bradley County, TN

199 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.8% rated Good, 38.7% Fair, 2.5% Poor.

199
Public bridges: 58.8%
Good condition: 2.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 25%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.5%
Poor-condition share: 199
public highway bridges: 1975
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.

Bradley County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bradley County ranks #24 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.5%). Bradley County, Tennessee contains 199 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.8% are rated “Good,” 38.7% “Fair,” and 2.5% “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

199

Public highway bridges in Bradley County

Good condition

58.8%

117 of 199 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.7%

77 of 199 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.5%

5 of 199 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 199 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

58.8% (117)

Fair

38.7% (77)

Poor

2.5% (5)

Bradley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,151 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,630 crossings a day against 6,744 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 199 of 199 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

51.8% of Bradley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

103 of the 199 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 58.8% 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 69% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAU 2259 731647R over SOUTHERN RAILWAY, built 1950, carries 5,623 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 8,151 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

10
1940s

10
1950s

10
1960s

50
1970s

26
1980s

41
1990s

18
2000s

14
2010s

11
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 50 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Bradley County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bradley County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Robertson County	204	63.7%	34.8%	1.5%	1975
Smith County	202	56.4%	33.7%	9.9%	1971
Tipton County	201	40.3%	55.2%	4.5%	1985
Bradley County (this page)	199	58.8%	38.7%	2.5%	1975
Carter County	195	44.6%	43.1%	12.3%	1976
Hardin County	192	36.5%	59.9%	3.6%	1982

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (199 bridges here).

Montgomery County, AR · 199 bridges
Warren County, IL · 199 bridges
Dallas County, IA · 199 bridges
Leake County, MS · 199 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1975 here).

San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges

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

All 199 Good 117 Fair 77 Poor 5

Good-condition bridges (117)

Sort:

Bradley County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bradley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,151 vehicle crossings a day

51.8% of Bradley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 69% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bradley 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

Good-condition bridges (117)

NFA A077

NFA A077

NFA A077

NFA A079

NFA A083

NFA A116

NFA A121

NFA A159

NFA A165

NFA A173

NFA A173

NFA A182

NFA A184

NFA A867

NFA A712

NFA A789

NFA A789

NFA A374

NFA A374

NFA A392

NFA A413

NFA A512

NFA A761

NFA A778

NFA A830

NFA A851

NFA A859

NFA A861 (SA 0618)

NFA A861 (SA 0618)

NFA A887 (SA 0621)

NFA B259

NFA B276

NFA B279

NFA B282

NFA B584

FAU 1156 731626X

FAU 1156

FAP 311

I75

I75

I75

FAU 3660

FAS 312

FAS 312

FAS 312

NFA 2265 (SA 0612)

FAS 306

NFA 1181 (SA 0605)

NFA 1181 (SA 0605)

NFA 2261 (SA 0606)

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