County profile · official public datasets

Hickman County, TN

331 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.7% rated Good, 56.2% Fair, 5.1% Poor.

331
Public bridges: 38.7%
Good condition: 5.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

69th
of 95 on Poor share: 5.1%
Poor-condition share: 331
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Hickman County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hickman County ranks #69 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.1%). Hickman County, Tennessee contains 331 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.7% are rated “Good,” 56.2% “Fair,” and 5.1% “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

331

Public highway bridges in Hickman County

Good condition

38.7%

128 of 331 rated 7-9

Fair condition

56.2%

186 of 331 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.1%

17 of 331 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#69 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 331 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.7% (128)

Fair

56.2% (186)

Poor

5.1% (17)

Hickman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,088 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 358 crossings a day against 927 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 331 of 331 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.9% of Hickman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

122 of the 331 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 38.7% 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 53.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAS 50 over DUCK RIVER, built 1970, carries 3,281 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 17-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,088 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

15
1950s

17
1960s

65
1970s

74
1980s

68
1990s

54
2000s

19
2010s

16
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 74 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Hickman County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.1% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hickman County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Weakley County	351	43.3%	55.6%	1.1%	1987
Fayette County	336	23.8%	68.8%	7.4%	1984
Hickman County (this page)	331	38.7%	56.2%	5.1%	1979
Giles County	321	56.1%	41.7%	2.2%	1968
Greene County	306	30.4%	67%	2.6%	1974
Lincoln County	304	52.6%	44.4%	3%	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 Hickman 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 Hickman County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (331 bridges here).

Sebastian County, AR · 331 bridges
Pike County, KY · 331 bridges
Franklin County, MO · 331 bridges
Harrison County, MO · 331 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 331 Good 128 Fair 186 Poor 17

Good-condition bridges (128)

Sort:

Hickman County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hickman County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,088 vehicle crossings a day

36.9% of Hickman County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 53.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hickman 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 (128)

NFA A685

NFA A284

NFA 1839 (SA 4121)

NFA 955 (SA 4110)

NFA A572

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NFA 1844 (SA 4124)

NFA A066

NFA B626

NFA A191

NFA 1837 (SA 4123)

NFA A427

NFA A010

NFA A022

NFA A096

NFA A163

NFA A448

NFA A364

I840

I840

NFA A089

NFA A195

NFA A279

NFA A323

NFA A374

NFA A422

NFA 950 (SA 4122)

NFA A081

NFA A154

NFA A327

NFA A318

NFA A556

NFA A588

NFA A775

FAS 48

NFA A320

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK

NFA 1831 (SA 4101)

NFA 1833 (SA 4103)

NFA 1856 (SA 4122)

NFA 1856 (SA 4122)

NFA A007

NFA A349

NFA A019

NFA A021

NFA A081

NFA A066

NFA A085

NFA A089

NFA A128

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