County profile · official public datasets

Wayne County, TN

274 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 24.1% rated Good, 72.3% Fair, 3.6% Poor.

274
Public bridges: 24.1%
Good condition: 3.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wayne 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 48%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.6%
Poor-condition share: 274
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Wayne County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wayne County ranks #46 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.6%). Wayne County, Tennessee contains 274 public highway bridges. Roughly 24.1% are rated “Good,” 72.3% “Fair,” and 3.6% “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

274

Public highway bridges in Wayne County

Good condition

24.1%

66 of 274 rated 7-9

Fair condition

72.3%

198 of 274 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.6%

10 of 274 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#46 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 274 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

24.1% (66)

Fair

72.3% (198)

Poor

3.6% (10)

Wayne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,653 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 265 crossings a day against 535 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 274 of 274 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

25.2% of Wayne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

69 of the 274 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 24.1% 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 26.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NATCHEZ TRACE PARK over COUNTY ROAD, built 1950, carries 700 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,653 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

3
1940s

2
1950s

15
1960s

30
1970s

25
1980s

73
1990s

54
2000s

33
2010s

35
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 73 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 10 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Wayne County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wayne County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bedford County	294	58.5%	38.8%	2.7%	1973
Washington County	284	48.6%	48.9%	2.5%	1976
Wayne County (this page)	274	24.1%	72.3%	3.6%	1987
Sevier County	273	54.6%	43.2%	2.2%	1977
Lauderdale County	258	36%	57.4%	6.6%	1985
Humphreys County	250	24.4%	68%	7.6%	1978

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (274 bridges here).

Cass County, NE · 274 bridges
Knox County, OH · 274 bridges
Walker County, AL · 275 bridges
Ellis County, KS · 275 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
St. Louis County, MN · avg 1987 · 663 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges

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

All 274 Good 66 Fair 198 Poor 10

All bridges (274)

Sort:

Wayne County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wayne County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,653 vehicle crossings a day

25.2% of Wayne County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wayne 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 (274)

NFA A222

NFA A233

NFA A251

NFA A251

NFA A252

NFA A264 (SA 9114)

NFA A274

NFA A278

NFA A279

NFA A283

NFA A288

NFA A292

NFA A292

NFA A292

NFA A296

NFA A312

NFA A312

NFA A316

NFA A318

NFA A318

NFA A318

NFA A327

NFA A332

NFA A335

NFA A338

NFA A353

NFA A361

NFA A366

NFA A366

NFA A373

NFA A382

NFA A385

NFA A406

NFA A465

NFA A465

NFA A466

NFA A466

NFA A468

NFA A468

NFA A475

NFA A477

NFA A491

NFA A533

NFA A535

NFA A535

NFA A536

NFA A536

NFA A536

NFA A536

NFA A536

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