Total bridges
215
Public highway bridges in Bennington County
County profile · official public datasets
Bennington County, VT
215 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.2% rated Good, 41.9% Fair, 0.9% Poor.
- 215
- Public bridges
- 57.2%
- Good condition
- 0.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Bennington County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 21%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 215
- public highway bridges
- 1964
- 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.
Bennington County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bennington County ranks #3 of 14 Vermont counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.9%). Bennington County, Vermont contains 215 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.2% are rated “Good,” 41.9% “Fair,” and 0.9% “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.
Good condition
57.2%
123 of 215 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.9%
90 of 215 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0.9%
2 of 215 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#3 of 14
Among Vermont counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 215 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 57.2% (123)
Fair 41.9% (90)
Poor 0.9% (2)
Bennington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,230 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 615 crossings a day against 2,595 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 215 of 215 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
57.2% of Bennington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
123 of the 215 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 57.2% 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 81.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
VT 00100 ML over DEERFIELD RIVER, built 1954, carries 1,000 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,230 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Bennington County's bridges were built
215 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 4
Built before 1900
4 bridges
- 1900s 3
1900–1909
3 bridges
- 1910s 11
1910–1919
11 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
15 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
30 bridges
- 1940s 10
1940–1949
10 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
21 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
32 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
31 bridges
- 1990s 11
1990–1999
11 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
18 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
16 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 14.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1964) matches the Vermont average (1964).
How Bennington County compares with Vermont's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Vermont counties nearest Bennington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.9% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 13 Vermont counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington County | 248 | 49.6% | 46.8% | 3.6% | 1961 |
| Caledonia County | 247 | 53% | 45.3% | 1.6% | 1965 |
| Bennington County (this page) | 215 | 57.2% | 41.9% | 0.9% | 1964 |
| Orange County | 208 | 50.5% | 47.6% | 1.9% | 1959 |
| Chittenden County | 184 | 54.9% | 42.9% | 2.2% | 1967 |
| Orleans County | 181 | 52.5% | 44.8% | 2.8% | 1971 |
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 Bennington 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 Bennington County, both outside Vermont so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VT (215 bridges here).
- Lawrence County, AL · 215 bridges
- Idaho County, ID · 215 bridges
- Terrebonne County, LA · 215 bridges
- Marshall County, MN · 215 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VT (1964 here).
- Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
- Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
- Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
- Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.