County profile · official public datasets

Coffee County, TN

217 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 24.4% rated Good, 66.4% Fair, 9.2% Poor.

217
Public bridges: 24.4%
Good condition: 9.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

89th
of 95 on Poor share: 9.2%
Poor-condition share: 217
public highway bridges: 1964
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.

Coffee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Coffee County ranks #89 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.2%). Coffee County, Tennessee contains 217 public highway bridges. Roughly 24.4% are rated “Good,” 66.4% “Fair,” and 9.2% “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

217

Public highway bridges in Coffee County

Good condition

24.4%

53 of 217 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.4%

144 of 217 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.2%

20 of 217 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#89 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 217 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

24.4% (53)

Fair

66.4% (144)

Poor

9.2% (20)

Coffee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 198,932 vehicle crossings a day

That is 11.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 9,947 crossings a day against 3,227 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 217 of 217 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

77.4% of Coffee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

168 of the 217 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 24.4% 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 22.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I24 EBL over NFA 2010 & NOAH FK CREEK, built 1968, carries 44,829 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 198,932 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

2
1930s

12
1940s

28
1950s

35
1960s

72
1970s

26
1980s

14
1990s

12
2000s

6
2010s

6
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 72 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1964, 13 years older than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Coffee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.2% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 15 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Coffee County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hardeman County	223	30%	67.3%	2.7%	1980
McMinn County	219	38.8%	58.4%	2.7%	1976
McNairy County	218	34.9%	62.4%	2.8%	1985
Coffee County (this page)	217	24.4%	66.4%	9.2%	1964
Blount County	215	63.7%	33.5%	2.8%	1974
Lawrence County	211	53.6%	44.5%	1.9%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (217 bridges here).

Sullivan County, IN · 217 bridges
Harrison County, IA · 217 bridges
Marion County, IA · 217 bridges
Ringgold County, IA · 217 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1964 here).

Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges

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

All 217 Good 53 Fair 144 Poor 20

All bridges (217)

Sort:

Coffee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Coffee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 198,932 vehicle crossings a day

77.4% of Coffee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 22.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Coffee 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 (217)

NFA A140

NFA A226

NFA A440

I24 EBL

I24 WBL

NFA A139

NFA A186

NFA A193

FAU 3428

NFA A222

NFA 5557 (SA 1614)

WATTENDORF MEM HWY

NFA A152

NFA 1105 (SA 1606)

NFA A013

I24 WBL 349451W

NFA A886 (SA 1616)

NFA A123

NFA A406

NFA 2124 (SA 1620)

NFA 1096 (SA 1610)

NFA 1096 (SA 1610)

NFA 1100 (SA 1618)

NFA 2010 (SA 1613)

NFA 2120 (SA 1615)

NFA 2133 (SA 1611)

NFA 2137 (SA 1619)

NFA 2137 (SA 1619)

NFA 2139 (SA 1621)

NFA A113

NFA A113

NFA A889

NFA A120

NFA A013

NFA A133

NFA A133

NFA A135

NFA A200

NFA A211

NFA A212

NFA A216

NFA A230

NFA A231

NFA A232

FAU 4663

NFA A279

NFA A310

NFA A898

NFA A381

NFA A900

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