County profile · official public datasets

McNairy County, TN

218 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.9% rated Good, 62.4% Fair, 2.8% Poor.

218
Public bridges: 34.9%
Good condition: 2.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

McNairy 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 34%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.8%
Poor-condition share: 218
public highway bridges: 1985
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.

McNairy County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McNairy County ranks #32 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). McNairy County, Tennessee contains 218 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.9% are rated “Good,” 62.4% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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

218

Public highway bridges in McNairy County

Good condition

34.9%

76 of 218 rated 7-9

Fair condition

62.4%

136 of 218 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.8%

6 of 218 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#32 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 218 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.9% (76)

Fair

62.4% (136)

Poor

2.8% (6)

McNairy County's Poor-condition bridges carry 633 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 106 crossings a day against 2,221 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 218 of 218 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

20.6% of McNairy County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

45 of the 218 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 34.9% 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 26.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA A164 over LICK CREEK, built 1975, 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 633 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

7
1930s

5
1940s

4
1950s

13
1960s

11
1970s

17
1980s

71
1990s

37
2000s

25
2010s

26
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 71 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 32.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1985, 8 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest McNairy County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 10 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for McNairy County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hardeman County	223	30%	67.3%	2.7%	1980
McMinn County	219	38.8%	58.4%	2.7%	1976
McNairy County (this page)	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	211	53.6%	44.5%	1.9%	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 McNairy 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 McNairy County, both outside Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (218 bridges here).

Okaloosa County, FL · 218 bridges
Yellow Medicine County, MN · 218 bridges
Fillmore County, NE · 218 bridges
Newberry County, SC · 218 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1985 here).

Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
Lancaster County, NE · avg 1985 · 661 bridges
Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges

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

All 218 Good 76 Fair 136 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (136)

Sort:

McNairy County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

McNairy County's Poor-condition bridges carry 633 vehicle crossings a day

20.6% of McNairy County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How McNairy 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 (136)

NFA 1655 (SA 5503)

NFA 1657 (SA 5501)

NFA 1666 (SA 5510)

NFA 1671 (SA 5512)

NFA 1676 (SA 5513)

NFA 1678 (SA 5516)

NFA 1678 (SA 5516)

NFA 1631

NFA A042

NFA A054

NFA A054

NFA A082

NFA A086

NFA A101

NFA A101

NFA A105

NFA A108

NFA A135

NFA A155

NFA A169

NFA A170

NFA A172

NFA A805

NFA A254

NFA A274

NFA A280

NFA A290

NFA A316

NFA A322

NFA A329

NFA A338

NFA A418

NFA A736

NFA A425

NFA A441

NFA 1650

NFA A494

NFA A503

NFA A522

NFA A542

NFA A545

NFA A655

NFA 5566 (SA 5515)

FAS 199

FAS 224

FAS 224

NFA 876 (SA 5511)

NFA 5567 (SA 5501)

NFA 1661 (SA 5509)

NFA 876 (SA 5511)

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