County profile · official public datasets

Hardeman County, TN

223 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30% rated Good, 67.3% Fair, 2.7% Poor.

223
Public bridges: 30%
Good condition: 2.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Hardeman County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 28%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.7%
Poor-condition share: 223
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Hardeman County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hardeman County ranks #27 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.7%). Hardeman County, Tennessee contains 223 public highway bridges. Roughly 30% are rated “Good,” 67.3% “Fair,” and 2.7% “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

223

Public highway bridges in Hardeman County

Good condition

30%

67 of 223 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.3%

150 of 223 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.7%

6 of 223 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 223 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30% (67)

Fair

67.3% (150)

Poor

2.7% (6)

Hardeman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 15,599 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,600 crossings a day against 1,710 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 223 of 223 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40.4% of Hardeman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 223 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 30% 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 36.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAP 15 over OVERFLOW, built 1930, carries 5,658 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 15,599 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

14
1940s

12
1950s

10
1960s

33
1970s

27
1980s

49
1990s

28
2000s

31
2010s

18
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 49 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Hardeman County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hardeman County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Dyer County	232	29.7%	62.1%	8.2%	1979
Hardeman County (this page)	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	217	24.4%	66.4%	9.2%	1964
Blount County	215	63.7%	33.5%	2.8%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (223 bridges here).

Woodford County, IL · 223 bridges
Ford County, KS · 223 bridges
Hardin County, KY · 223 bridges
Stanton County, NE · 223 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 223 Good 67 Fair 150 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (150)

Sort:

Hardeman County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hardeman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 15,599 vehicle crossings a day

40.4% of Hardeman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 36.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hardeman 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

Fair-condition bridges (150)

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 15

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 100

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 18

FAP 57

FAP 57 732072A

FAP 57

FAP 57

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 100

FAP 125

FAP 125

FAP 125

FAP 125

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAS 138

FAP 125

FAP 100

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