Total bridges
217
Public highway bridges in Coffee County
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.
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.
When Coffee County's bridges were built
217 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 12
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 28
1940–1949
28 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
35 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
72 bridges
- 1970s 26
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s 14
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s 12
1990–1999
12 bridges
- 2000s 6
2000–2009
6 bridges
- 2010s 6
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (53)
FAP 55
GoodOver: CRUMPTON CREEK
AT BORDER WITH MANCHESTER, Coffee, TN
Built 1979 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 18,832
FAP 55
GoodOver: BRANCH
ON COFFEE-WARREN CO.LINE, Coffee, TN
Built 1940 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 9,271
FAS 130
GoodOver: WEST FORK ROCK CREEK
WEST OF TULLAHOMA, Coffee, TN
Built 1990 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 761
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.