Total bridges
118
Public highway bridges in Houston County
County profile · official public datasets
Houston County, TN
118 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.8% rated Good, 50.8% Fair, 3.4% Poor.
- 118
- Public bridges
- 45.8%
- Good condition
- 3.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Houston County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 44%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 118
- public highway bridges
- 1978
- 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.
Houston County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Houston County ranks #42 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.4%). Houston County, Tennessee contains 118 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.8% are rated “Good,” 50.8% “Fair,” and 3.4% “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
45.8%
54 of 118 rated 7-9
Fair condition
50.8%
60 of 118 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.4%
4 of 118 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#42 of 95
Among Tennessee counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 118 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 45.8% (54)
Fair 50.8% (60)
Poor 3.4% (4)
Houston County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,503 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 626 crossings a day against 672 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 118 of 118 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
41.5% of Houston County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
49 of the 118 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 45.8% 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 64.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
FAS 13 over MUSTER GROUND CREEK, built 1928, carries 1,617 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 2,503 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Houston County's bridges were built
118 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
20 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
22 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
28 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
19 bridges
- 2000s 11
2000–2009
11 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Tennessee average (1977).
How Houston County compares with Tennessee's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Houston County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 5 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 94 Tennessee counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson County | 122 | 13.9% | 74.6% | 11.5% | 1966 |
| Morgan County | 120 | 48.3% | 45% | 6.7% | 1981 |
| Hamblen County | 119 | 17.6% | 79.8% | 2.5% | 1976 |
| Houston County (this page) | 118 | 45.8% | 50.8% | 3.4% | 1978 |
| Loudon County | 117 | 53% | 45.3% | 1.7% | 1971 |
| Scott County | 111 | 24.3% | 71.2% | 4.5% | 1973 |
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 Houston 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 Houston County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside TN (118 bridges here).
- Autauga County, AL · 118 bridges
- Perry County, AR · 118 bridges
- Montrose County, CO · 118 bridges
- Rabun County, GA · 118 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1978 here).
- Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
- Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
- Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
- Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (54)
NFA A171
GoodOver: SALMON BRANCH
SALMON BRANCH RD, Houston, TN
Built 1994 Load: 42.4 t ADT: 40
NFA 910 (SA 4201)
GoodOver: BRANCH
4 M S OF TENN RIDGE, Houston, TN
Built 1995 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 126
NFA A076
GoodOver: DRY BRANCH
5.5 M. E. ERIN., Houston, TN
Built 1982 Load: 52.2 t ADT: 140
NFA A123
GoodOver: BATEMAN BRANCH
5 M. SE. ERIN., Houston, TN
Built 1984 Load: 52.2 t ADT: 140
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.