Total bridges
107
Public highway bridges in Caroline County
County profile · official public datasets
Caroline County, VA
107 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 22.4% rated Good, 72.9% Fair, 4.7% Poor.
- 107
- Public bridges
- 22.4%
- Good condition
- 4.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Caroline County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 82nd
- of 129 on Poor share
- 4.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 107
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Caroline County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Caroline County ranks #82 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.7%). Caroline County, Virginia contains 107 public highway bridges. Roughly 22.4% are rated “Good,” 72.9% “Fair,” and 4.7% “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
22.4%
24 of 107 rated 7-9
Fair condition
72.9%
78 of 107 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.7%
5 of 107 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#82 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 107 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 22.4% (24)
Fair 72.9% (78)
Poor 4.7% (5)
Caroline County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,688 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,338 crossings a day against 1,334 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 107 of 107 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
61.7% of Caroline County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
66 of the 107 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 22.4% 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 82.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
ROGERS-CLARK EBL over MATTAPONI RIVER, built 1973, carries 5,501 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 6,688 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Caroline County's bridges were built
107 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1950s 8
1950–1959
8 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
34 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
15 bridges
- 1980s 9
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 4
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Virginia average (1974).
How Caroline County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Caroline County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floyd County | 115 | 47% | 53% | 0% | 1965 |
| Stafford County | 112 | 38.4% | 59.8% | 1.8% | 1987 |
| Caroline County (this page) | 107 | 22.4% | 72.9% | 4.7% | 1975 |
| Pulaski County | 105 | 30.5% | 66.7% | 2.9% | 1965 |
| Sussex County | 105 | 13.3% | 86.7% | 0% | 1973 |
| Spotsylvania County | 102 | 35.3% | 64.7% | 0% | 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 Caroline 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 Caroline County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (107 bridges here).
- Fannin County, GA · 107 bridges
- Habersham County, GA · 107 bridges
- Ware County, GA · 107 bridges
- Magoffin County, KY · 107 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (5)
EDGEHILL ACADEMY R
PoorOver: MATTA RIVER
1.0M RTE605-2.1M RTE606, Caroline, VA
Built 1959 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 190
THORNTON ROAD
PoorOver: TURKEY TRACK CREEK
2/3 MI W JEFF DAVIS DR, Caroline, VA
Built 1968 Load: 29.8 t ADT: 20
COUNTYLINE CHURCH
PoorOver: TEMPLES MILL
1.1 RT 671 & 0.5 RT 680, Caroline, VA
Built 1915 Load: 30.9 t ADT: 809
ROGERS-CLARK EBL
PoorOver: MATTAPONI RIVER
8.1M I95SBL-2.5M BW G CL, Caroline, VA
Built 1973 Load: 41.3 t ADT: 5,501
SOUTH RIVER RD.
PoorOver: SOUTH RIVER
0.1M RTE664-2.4M RTE605, Caroline, VA
Built 1973 Load: 47.7 t ADT: 168
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.