County profile · official public datasets

Unicoi County, TN

161 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46% rated Good, 49.1% Fair, 5% Poor.

161
Public bridges: 46%
Good condition: 5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Unicoi County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

68th
of 95 on Poor share: 5%
Poor-condition share: 161
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Unicoi County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Unicoi County ranks #68 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Unicoi County, Tennessee contains 161 public highway bridges. Roughly 46% are rated “Good,” 49.1% “Fair,” and 5% “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

161

Public highway bridges in Unicoi County

Good condition

46%

74 of 161 rated 7-9

Fair condition

49.1%

79 of 161 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8 of 161 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#68 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 161 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

46% (74)

Fair

49.1% (79)

Poor

5% (8)

Unicoi County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,009 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 626 crossings a day against 4,878 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 161 of 161 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

15.5% of Unicoi County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

25 of the 161 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 46% 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 83% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAS 107 over INDIAN CREEK, built 1928, carries 4,155 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 5,009 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

3
1940s

4
1950s

2
1960s

8
1970s

22
1980s

49
1990s

51
2000s

10
2010s

6
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1984, 7 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Unicoi County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Unicoi County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Crockett County	167	44.9%	54.5%	0.6%	1985
Unicoi County (this page)	161	46%	49.1%	5%	1984
Warren County	160	48.1%	48.1%	3.8%	1976
Cannon County	159	45.9%	43.4%	10.7%	1974
Roane County	159	48.4%	49.7%	1.9%	1972
Franklin County	157	42.7%	53.5%	3.8%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (161 bridges here).

Carroll County, IN · 161 bridges
Floyd County, KY · 161 bridges
Greenup County, KY · 161 bridges
Dade County, MO · 161 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges

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

All 161 Good 74 Fair 79 Poor 8

All bridges (161)

Sort:

Unicoi County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Unicoi County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,009 vehicle crossings a day

15.5% of Unicoi County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 83% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Unicoi 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 (161)

I26

I26 RT LN

I26 LT LN

I26

I26 RT LN

I26 LT LN

I26 RT LN

I26 LT LN

NFA 4701

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26

I26 RT LN

I26 LT LN

I26

FAS 173

NFA 2557 (SA 8601)

FAS 352

NFA 2559

NFA A606

I26

I26

FAS 107

NFA A604

NFA A605

NFA A058

NFSR 25

NFA B124

NFSR 25

NFA 2557 (SA 8601)

NFA 1419 (SA 8604)

I26 RT LN

I26 LT LN

I26 RT LN

I26

NFA 1415

FAU 4703

NFA 4718

NFA 2624

NFA A014

NFA A028

NFA A030

NFA A053

NFA A055

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