County profile · official public datasets

Loudon County, TN

117 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53% rated Good, 45.3% Fair, 1.7% Poor.

117
Public bridges: 53%
Good condition: 1.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Loudon County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.7%
Poor-condition share: 117
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Loudon County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Loudon County ranks #15 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.7%). Loudon County, Tennessee contains 117 public highway bridges. Roughly 53% are rated “Good,” 45.3% “Fair,” and 1.7% “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

117

Public highway bridges in Loudon County

Good condition

53%

62 of 117 rated 7-9

Fair condition

45.3%

53 of 117 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.7%

2 of 117 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 117 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53% (62)

Fair

45.3% (53)

Poor

1.7% (2)

Loudon County's Poor-condition bridges carry 450 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 225 crossings a day against 15,157 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 117 of 117 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65% of Loudon County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

76 of the 117 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% 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 51.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA A661 over POLECAT CREEK, built 1944, carries 230 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 450 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

4
1930s

4
1940s

5
1950s

14
1960s

19
1970s

37
1980s

15
1990s

5
2000s

6
2010s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 37 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 6 years older than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Loudon County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Loudon County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
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	118	45.8%	50.8%	3.4%	1978
Loudon County (this page)	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 Loudon 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 Loudon County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (117 bridges here).

Franklin County, GA · 117 bridges
Polk County, GA · 117 bridges
Clark County, KY · 117 bridges
Fleming County, KY · 117 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 117 Good 62 Fair 53 Poor 2

All bridges (117)

Sort:

I75

Fair

Over: SR 1

3 M NE OF KNOX CO LN, Loudon, TN

Built 1964 Load: 34.7 t ADT: 58,302

I40

Fair

Over: SR 73

.6 M W OF ROANE CO LN, Loudon, TN

Built 1960 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 42,725

I40 LL

Fair

Over: NFA C131 BUTTERMILK RD

.3 M S WILLIAMS FERRY RD, Loudon, TN

Loudon County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Loudon County's Poor-condition bridges carry 450 vehicle crossings a day

65% of Loudon County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 51.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Loudon 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

All bridges (117)

I75

I40

I40 LL

FAP 72

NFA A035

I75 RL

NFA 2364

FAP 72 731513S

FAP 33

I75

I75 RL

I75 LL

FAS 322

I75 RL

FAP 73

FAP 72

I75 LL

FAP 72

NFA 2356 731507N

FAS 444

FAP 72 RL

FAP 72 LL

NFA 1220 (SA 5327)

NFA 1216

FAS 444

NFA 2354

NFA 2349

NFA 1251 (SA 5330)

NFA 2356 (SA 5306)

NFA 5588

NFA 5589

NFA A050

NFA A596

NFA A592

FAU 4354

NFA A385

NFA A646

FAU 4351

MALIAQUO RD

NFA A601

NFA A647

NFA A652

I40

I40 RAMP

I75

I75

I75

NFA 1216 (SA 5314)

FAS 323

FAU 2353 (SA 5329)

Related