County profile · official public datasets

Chester County, TN

127 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.6% rated Good, 57.5% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

127
Public bridges: 38.6%
Good condition: 3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

51st
of 95 on Poor share: 3.9%
Poor-condition share: 127
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Chester County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Chester County ranks #51 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Chester County, Tennessee contains 127 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.6% are rated “Good,” 57.5% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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

127

Public highway bridges in Chester County

Good condition

38.6%

49 of 127 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.5%

73 of 127 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

5 of 127 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#51 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 127 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.6% (49)

Fair

57.5% (73)

Poor

3.9% (5)

Chester County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,185 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 837 crossings a day against 2,562 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 127 of 127 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.5% of Chester County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

40 of the 127 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 38.6% 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 34.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA A230 over TAR CREEK, built 1965, carries 1,430 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 4,185 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

9
1950s

10
1960s

11
1970s

18
1980s

18
1990s

29
2000s

26
2010s

4
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 6 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Chester County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 8 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Chester County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jackson County	131	39.7%	57.3%	3.1%	1978
Cheatham County	128	43.8%	50%	6.3%	1975
Chester County (this page)	127	38.6%	57.5%	3.9%	1983
Jefferson County	122	13.9%	74.6%	11.5%	1966
Morgan County	120	48.3%	45%	6.7%	1981
Hamblen County	119	17.6%	79.8%	2.5%	1976

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (127 bridges here).

Yuba County, CA · 127 bridges
Jefferson County, ID · 127 bridges
Harrison County, IN · 127 bridges
Vermillion County, IN · 127 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 127 Good 49 Fair 73 Poor 5

All bridges (127)

Sort:

Chester County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Chester County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,185 vehicle crossings a day

31.5% of Chester County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 34.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Chester 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 (127)

NFA A304

NFA A334

NFA 5554 (SA 1208)

NFA 926 (SA 1212)

NFA 926 (SA 1212)

NFA 926 (SA 1212)

FAS 200

FAP 5

FAP 5

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAS 365 299362P

FAP 22

FAS 22

FAS 22

FAS 22

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAS 225

NFA 1675 (SA 1205)

NFA A230

NFA 1669 (SA 1211)

NFA A189

NFA 1679

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