SR1953 (closed) over Rocky River

Chatham County, North Carolina · rated Poor in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory

United States Bridge Conditions2025 National Bridge Inventory, FHWACompiled August 20, 2026

• SR1953 (closed) over Rocky River in Chatham County, North Carolina, is rated in poor condition in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory (as of August 20, 2026).
• Its lowest-rated component is the superstructure, rated 3 (serious condition) on the 0-9 scale.
• It was built in 1921 and reconstructed in 1959, making it 104 years old at the 2025 inventory.
• It carries about 390 vehicles a day (traffic count year 2015).
• Its listed owner is the state highway agency.
• It is one of 3 of the 243 inventoried bridges in Chatham County rated poor (1.2%); 3 (1.2%) are rated poor.
• Its traffic status in the 2025 inventory is closed to all traffic (NBI item 41).
• Its condition class and component ratings are unchanged from the 2024 inventory.
• Status change: newly closed since 2024.
• Its most recent inspection on record is dated July 2024, on a 24-month routine inspection cycle.
• It has fracture-critical members (NBI item 92A): steel tension members without a redundant load path, which get their own scheduled inspections.
• A poor rating means at least one major component - deck, superstructure, or substructure - is rated 4 or lower on FHWA's 0-9 scale. It does not by itself mean the bridge is unsafe; bridges judged unsafe are closed or load-restricted by their owners.

View this bridge on a map → (35.62364, -79.19939)

Component ratings

Bridge details

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2025 data as reported by the North Carolina department of transportation.

Busiest bridges in Chatham County

All bridges nearby: Chatham County, NC bridge conditions · every bridge in Chatham County · North Carolina bridges.

Background: how bridge ratings work · what "poor" and "structurally deficient" actually mean · how often bridges are inspected.