Total bridges
218
Public highway bridges in McNairy County
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.
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.
When McNairy County's bridges were built
218 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 5
1930–1939
5 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 13
1950–1959
13 bridges
- 1960s 11
1960–1969
11 bridges
- 1970s 17
1970–1979
17 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
71 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
37 bridges
- 2000s 25
2000–2009
25 bridges
- 2010s 26
2010–2019
26 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
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.
| 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.
Poor-condition bridges (6)
NFA A082
PoorOver: SULPHUR SPRINGS BRANCH
10 MI W OF SR22, McNairy, TN
Built 1977 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 90
NFA A256
PoorOver: MUDDY CREEK
2 MI N OF SR57, McNairy, TN
Built 1975 Load: 13.6 t ADT: 70
NFA 1665 (SA 5519)
PoorOver: CYPRESS CREEK
3 MI NE OF BETHEL, McNairy, TN
Built 1972 Load: 16.2 t ADT: 110
NFA 1584
PoorOver: SWEET LIPS CREEK
BULLMAN ROAD, McNairy, TN
Built 1975 Load: 23.0 t ADT: 78
NFA A164
PoorOver: LICK CREEK
6 MI W OF SR22, McNairy, TN
Built 1975 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 165
NFA A805
PoorOver: GRAHAM CREEK
0.3 MI N OF SR15, McNairy, TN
Built 1975 Load: 24.3 t ADT: 120
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.