County profile · official public datasets

Bath County, VA

73 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26% rated Good, 67.1% Fair, 6.8% Poor.

73
Public bridges
26%
Good condition
6.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

104th
of 129 on Poor share
6.8%
Poor-condition share
73
public highway bridges
1955
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.

Bath County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bath County ranks #104 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.8%). Bath County, Virginia contains 73 public highway bridges. Roughly 26% are rated “Good,” 67.1% “Fair,” and 6.8% “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

73

Public highway bridges in Bath County

Good condition

26%

19 of 73 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.1%

49 of 73 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.8%

5 of 73 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#104 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 73 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
26% (19)
Fair
67.1% (49)
Poor
6.8% (5)

Bath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,377 vehicle crossings a day

That is 12% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 675 crossings a day against 201 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 73 of 73 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.5% of Bath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 73 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 26% 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 46.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD over GUYS RUN, built 1932, carries 1,574 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,377 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Bath County's bridges were built

73 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 42.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1955, 19 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

How Bath County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Bath County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1955 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 17 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bath County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Dickenson County 76 1.3%
Bath County (this page) 73 6.8%
Buckingham County 72 2.8%
Orange County 71 2.8%
Appomattox County 68 1.5%
Nottoway County 67 4.5%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (73 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1955 here).

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

All 73 Good 19 Fair 49 Poor 5

All bridges (73)

RIDGE ROAD

Good

Over: MILL CREEK

0.15 TO 640 & 0.25 TO 639, Bath, VA

Built 2007 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 56

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

Good

Over: BIG TURN RUN

0.25 TO 601 & 1.98 TO WVL, Bath, VA

Built 1995 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 245

RIVER ROAD

Good

Over: COWPASTURE RIVER

1.40 TO 624 & 5.30 TO 629, Bath, VA

Built 1958 Load: 37.2 t ADT: 57

BACK CREEK ROAD

Good

Over: JIM DAVE RUN

6.55 TO 705 & 1.25 TO 39, Bath, VA

Built 1978 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 94

SUGAR HOLLOW ROAD

Good

Over: LICK RUN

0.55 TO END & 0.10 TO 633, Bath, VA

Built 1990 Load: 42.6 t ADT: 63

JACKSON RVR TNPK

Good

Over: TRIB CEDAR CREEK

1.25 TO ACL & 1.15 TO 605, Bath, VA

Built 2004 Load: 44.4 t ADT: 578

WHISPERING PINE RD

Good

Over: WILSON CREEK

0.01 to 629 & 0.00 END, Bath, VA

Built 2011 Load: 44.9 t ADT: 124

COLES MOUNTAIN RD

Good

Over: CEDAR RUN

0.80 TO 687 & 1.60 TO ACL, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 99

LOWER YARD ROAD

Good

Over: CABIN CREEK

0.25 RT 691 - 0.20 RT 665, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 48.1 t ADT: 154

COWPASTURE RVR RD

Good

Over: BULL PASTURE RIVER

0.01 RT 628 -0.50 HIGH CO, Bath, VA

Built 1972 Load: 52.6 t ADT: 139

POOR FARM RD

Good

Over: JACKSON RIVER

1.05End Maint-0.85 RT 220, Bath, VA

Built 1990 Load: 53.5 t ADT: 70

JACKSON RIVER TPK

Good

Over: CASCADES CREEK

0.15 RT 605 - 2.47 RT 693, Bath, VA

Built 2017 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 578

RIVER ROAD

Good

Over: COWPASTURE RIVER

2.93 TO 629 & 3.77 TO 624, Bath, VA

Built 1983 Load: 57.2 t ADT: 57

RIVER ROAD

Good

Over: COWPASTURE RIVER

2.95 RT 629 - 3.75 RT 624, Bath, VA

Built 1983 Load: 60.8 t ADT: 57

MCCLUNG DRIVE

Good

Over: COWPASTURE RIVER

1.20 TO 626 & 3.50 TO 678, Bath, VA

Built 1979 Load: 60.8 t ADT: 70

BACOVA JUNCTION

Good

Over: COWARDIN RUN

0.50 RT 618 - 0.30 RT 603, Bath, VA

Built 2014 Load: 74.4 t ADT: 329

MILL CREEK ROAD

Good

Over: MILL CREEK

2.40 TO 635 & 3.60 TO 629, Bath, VA

Built 1996 Load: 76.9 t ADT: 111

JACKSON RIVER TPK

Good

Over: CEDAR CREEK

0.40 RT 605 - 2.22 RT 693, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 88.9 t ADT: 578

COWPASTURE RVR HWY

Poor

Over: COWPASTURE RIVER

1.61 TO 631 & 0.36 TO ACL, Bath, VA

Built 1939 Load: 19.1 t ADT: 666

INDIAN DRAFT ROAD

Poor

Over: TRIB STUART RUN

.30 TO 629E & .60 TO 629W, Bath, VA

Built 1953 Load: 23.4 t ADT: 207

DOUTHAT ROAD

Poor

Over: WILSON CREEK

12.73 TO 683& 1.07 TO ACL, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 465

DOUTHAT ROAD

Poor

Over: WILSON CREEK

2.63 TO ACL &11.17 TO 683, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 465

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

Poor

Over: GUYS RUN

2.72 TO 690 & 0.96 TO 688, Bath, VA

Built 1932 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,574

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

Browse all → | Rankings →
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.