County profile · official public datasets

Hardin County, TN

192 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.5% rated Good, 59.9% Fair, 3.6% Poor.

192
Public bridges: 36.5%
Good condition: 3.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 47%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.6%
Poor-condition share: 192
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Hardin County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hardin County ranks #45 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.6%). Hardin County, Tennessee contains 192 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.5% are rated “Good,” 59.9% “Fair,” and 3.6% “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

192

Public highway bridges in Hardin County

Good condition

36.5%

70 of 192 rated 7-9

Fair condition

59.9%

115 of 192 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.6%

7 of 192 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#45 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 192 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

36.5% (70)

Fair

59.9% (115)

Poor

3.6% (7)

Hardin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 485 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 69 crossings a day against 1,393 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 192 of 192 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37% of Hardin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

71 of the 192 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 36.5% 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% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA 2333 over INDIAN CREEK, built 1957, carries 165 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 485 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

10
1940s

10
1950s

15
1960s

22
1970s

21
1980s

40
1990s

21
2000s

23
2010s

23
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1982, 5 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Hardin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hardin County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Carter County	195	44.6%	43.1%	12.3%	1976
Hardin County (this page)	192	36.5%	59.9%	3.6%	1982
Cocke County	190	20%	71.6%	8.4%	1977
Hawkins County	190	21.1%	70%	8.9%	1971
Henry County	187	39%	56.7%	4.3%	1978
Montgomery County	186	36.6%	57.5%	5.9%	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 Hardin 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 Hardin County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (192 bridges here).

Barbour County, AL · 192 bridges
El Dorado County, CA · 192 bridges
Santa Cruz County, CA · 192 bridges
Morgan County, CO · 192 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1982 here).

Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges

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

All 192 Good 70 Fair 115 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (70)

Sort:

Hardin County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hardin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 485 vehicle crossings a day

37% of Hardin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 34% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hardin 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 (70)

FAP 15

FAP 69

NFA A041

NFA A331

NFA A331

FAS 203

NFA 2702 (SA 3625)

FAP 69

NFA 1723 (SA 3619)

FAP 69

FAS 69

FAS 69

NFA A240 (SA 3624)

NFA 897 (SA 3603)

NFA 901 (SA 3607)

NFA 1721 (SA 3614)

NFA 1723 (SA 3619)

NFA 1723 (SA 3619)

NFA 1723 (SA 3619)

NFA 1725 (SA 3626)

NFA 1727 (SA 3606)

NFA 1738

NFA 1750

NFA 2333

NFA A023

NFA A051

NFA A098

NFA A128 (SA 3621)

NFA A131 (SA 3623)

NFA A136

NFA A137

NFA A155

NFA A157

NFA A177

NFA A181

NFA A184

NFA A194

NFA A232

NFA A252

NFA A252

NFA A281

NFA A289

NFA A302

NFA A302

NFA A308

NFA A335

NFA 5561

NFA A424

NFA A431

NFA A437

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