Total bridges
24
Public highway bridges in Charlottesville city County
County profile · official public datasets
Charlottesville city County, VA
24 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25% rated Good, 54.2% Fair, 20.8% Poor.
- 24
- Public bridges
- 25%
- Good condition
- 20.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Charlottesville city County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 127th
- of 129 on Poor share
- 20.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 24
- public highway bridges
- 1977
- 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.
Charlottesville city County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Charlottesville city County ranks #127 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 20.8%). Charlottesville city County, Virginia contains 24 public highway bridges. Roughly 25% are rated “Good,” 54.2% “Fair,” and 20.8% “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.
Good condition
25%
6 of 24 rated 7-9
Fair condition
54.2%
13 of 24 rated 5-6
Poor condition
20.8%
5 of 24 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#127 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 24 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 25% (6)
Fair 54.2% (13)
Poor 20.8% (5)
Charlottesville city County's Poor-condition bridges carry 105,244 vehicle crossings a day
That is 31.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 20.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 21,049 crossings a day against 17,255 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 24 of 24 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
58.3% of Charlottesville city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
14 of the 24 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 25% 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 38.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
ROUTE 0250 over RUGBY AVE, built 1970, carries 40,230 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 105,244 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Charlottesville city County's bridges were built
24 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 2
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s 2
1990–1999
2 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
4 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 6 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Virginia average (1974).
How Charlottesville city County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Charlottesville city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 20.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 6 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandria city County | 29 | 34.5% | 65.5% | 0% | 1970 |
| Charlottesville city County (this page) | 24 | 25% | 54.2% | 20.8% | 1977 |
| Richmond County | 23 | 13% | 87% | 0% | 1966 |
| Charles City County | 22 | 13.6% | 77.3% | 9.1% | 1970 |
| Westmoreland County | 22 | 45.5% | 54.5% | 0% | 1973 |
| Gloucester County | 21 | 47.6% | 52.4% | 0% | 1977 |
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 Charlottesville city 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 Charlottesville city County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (24 bridges here).
- Meade County, KY · 24 bridges
- Robertson County, KY · 24 bridges
- Garfield County, NE · 24 bridges
- De Baca County, NM · 24 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1977 here).
- San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
- King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
- Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
- Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (13)
ROUTE 0000
FairOver: RUGBY RD O CSX RAILWAY
0000UNIV HWY0000CHANC S, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1921 Load: 25.2 t ADT: 3,213
ROUTE 0000
FairOver: PARK ST O RT 250 BP
0005LYONS AVE0028NORTH AV, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1954 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 7,200
ROUTE 0000
FairOver: MELBOURNE RD O SCHNKS B
0015PARK-ST 0045KENWOO-L, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1974 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 2,377
ROUTE 0000
FairOver: LOCUST AV O RT 250 BP
005520 0020CALHON S, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1954 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,335
HOLMES AVENUE
FairOver: MEADOW CREEK
0010ELIZ AVE 0017NORTH AV, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1957 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,700
BRANDYWINE DRIVE
FairOver: MEADOW CREEK
0001GREENBR D0025YORKTN D, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1932 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 1,820
MEADOW CREEK
FairOver: HYDRAULIC ROAD
002629 0015250, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1985 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 29,040
ROUTE 0250
FairOver: MEADOW BROOK CK
0.26 FR 29/0.06HYDRLIC RD, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1953 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 22,297
5TH STREET SW
FairOver: TRIB. OF MOORES CREEK
0.9M-I64 / 1.0M-Elliot Av, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1970 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 18,810
MELBOURNE ROAD
FairOver: NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY
0.4-RIO RD & 0.2-GROVE RD, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1974 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 2,377
WEST MAIN STREET
FairOver: NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY
0.08 FR9THST/0.11 TO7THST, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1996 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 10,403
AVON STREET EXTD
FairOver: AVON ST O MOORES CREEK
0.15 1101 / 0.00 SCL CHAR, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 1967 Load: 42.6 t ADT: 10,897
ROUTE 20 / 9TH ST
FairOver: PEDESTRIAN UNDERPASS
0.18GARRET ST/0.56 TO 250, Charlottesville city, VA
Built 2001 Load: 50.8 t ADT: 11,569
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.