County profile · official public datasets

Obion County, TN

381 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.8% rated Good, 53.3% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

381
Public bridges: 43.8%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Obion 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 36%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 381
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Obion County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Obion County ranks #34 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Obion County, Tennessee contains 381 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.8% are rated “Good,” 53.3% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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

381

Public highway bridges in Obion County

Good condition

43.8%

167 of 381 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.3%

203 of 381 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

11 of 381 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#34 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 381 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.8% (167)

Fair

53.3% (203)

Poor

2.9% (11)

Obion County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,022 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,002 crossings a day against 2,135 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 374 of 381 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

29.7% of Obion County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

113 of the 381 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 43.8% 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 25.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAP 43 over HARRIS CREEK, built 1929, carries 2,784 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 11,022 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1920s

19
1930s

5
1940s

5
1950s

10
1960s

31
1970s

96
1980s

61
1990s

46
2000s

57
2010s

26
2020s

23

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 96 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 6 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Obion County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Obion County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Wilson County	402	60.7%	31.1%	8.2%	1972
Sumner County	398	69.1%	26.4%	4.5%	1976
Gibson County	386	32.9%	62.4%	4.7%	1987
Obion County (this page)	381	43.8%	53.3%	2.9%	1983
Sullivan County	368	42.1%	55.2%	2.7%	1973
Weakley County	351	43.3%	55.6%	1.1%	1987

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (381 bridges here).

Baldwin County, AL · 381 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · 381 bridges
Jasper County, IA · 382 bridges
Orleans County, LA · 382 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 381 Good 167 Fair 203 Poor 11

Fair-condition bridges (203)

Sort:

Obion County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Obion County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,022 vehicle crossings a day

29.7% of Obion County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 25.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Obion 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 (203)

NFA A047

NFA 1536 (SA 6619)

NFA A501

FAP 3

NFA A058

NFA A098

NFA A120

NFA A139

NFA A279

NFA A590

NFA 1528 (SA 6616)

NFA A045

NFA A141

NFA A145 (SA 6615)

NFA A253

NFA A550

NFA A567

NFA A580

NFA A664

NFA A676

FAP 3

FAP 3

NFA 1532

NFA 1534 (SA 6615)

NFA A058

NFA A088

NFA A090

NFA A091

NFA A095

NFA A471

NFA A490

NFA A580

NFA A659

FAS 214

FAS 214

NFA 1534 (SA 6615)

NFA A618

NFA A678

NFA A731

FAS 216

FAS 211

NFA 1433 (SA 6602)

NFA A615

FAS 214

NFA 2122

FAP 22

NFA A071

NFA 1524 (SA 6605)

FAP 22

FAP 22

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