County profile · official public datasets

Lawrence County, TN

211 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.6% rated Good, 44.5% Fair, 1.9% Poor.

211
Public bridges: 53.6%
Good condition: 1.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lawrence County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 18%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.9%
Poor-condition share: 211
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.

Lawrence County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lawrence County ranks #17 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.9%). Lawrence County, Tennessee contains 211 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.6% are rated “Good,” 44.5% “Fair,” and 1.9% “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

211

Public highway bridges in Lawrence County

Good condition

53.6%

113 of 211 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.5%

94 of 211 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.9%

4 of 211 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#17 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 211 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53.6% (113)

Fair

44.5% (94)

Poor

1.9% (4)

Lawrence County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,013 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 253 crossings a day against 2,112 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 211 of 211 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.4% of Lawrence County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

81 of the 211 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 53.6% 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 66.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA 1426 (SA 5007) over SHOAL CREEK, built 1965, carries 673 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 1,013 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

7
1940s

5
1950s

29
1960s

32
1970s

17
1980s

40
1990s

32
2000s

20
2010s

24

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Lawrence County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 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 Lawrence County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
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
Lawrence County (this page)	211	53.6%	44.5%	1.9%	1979
Henderson County	207	31.9%	64.7%	3.4%	1983
Robertson County	204	63.7%	34.8%	1.5%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (211 bridges here).

Colusa County, CA · 211 bridges
Charlotte County, FL · 211 bridges
Kemper County, MS · 211 bridges
Pike County, MS · 211 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 211 Good 113 Fair 94 Poor 4

Fair-condition bridges (94)

Sort:

Lawrence County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lawrence County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,013 vehicle crossings a day

38.4% of Lawrence County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 66.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lawrence 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 (94)

NFA A563

NFA A107

NFA A464

NFA A475

NFA 949 (SA 5025)

NFA A267

NFA 1805 (SA 5009)

NFA 1811 (SA 5014)

NFA 1819 (SA 5023)

NFA 1832

NFA 1832

NFA B042

NFA 3159

NFA A662

NFA A148

NFA A162

NFA A648

NFA A286

NFA A286

NFA A337

NFA A337

NFA A360

NFA A383

NFA A442

NFA A496

NFA A603

NFA A616

NFA 1805 (SA 5009)

NFA A647

NFA A719

NFA 932 (SA 5013)

FAS 227

FAS 240

FAS 240

FAS 242

NFA 934 (SA 5004)

NFA 912 (SA 5002)

FAP 6

FAP 6

FAP 6

FAP 6

FAP 6

NFA A157

NFA A048

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