Total bridges
5
Public highway bridges in Galax city County
County profile · official public datasets
Galax city County, VA
5 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40% rated Good, 60% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 5
- Public bridges
- 40%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Galax city County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 19%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 5
- public highway bridges
- 1966
- 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.
Galax city County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Galax city County ranks #25 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Galax city County, Virginia contains 5 public highway bridges. Roughly 40% are rated “Good,” 60% “Fair,” and 0% “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
40%
2 of 5 rated 7-9
Fair condition
60%
3 of 5 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 5 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#25 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 5 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40% (2)
Fair 60% (3)
Poor 0% (0)
60% of Galax city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
3 of the 5 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 40% 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.
When Galax city County's bridges were built
5 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1940s
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1940s, when 3 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 60% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 75 to 84 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 8 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.
How Galax city County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Galax city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 19 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emporia city County | 7 | 57.1% | 42.9% | 0% | 1984 |
| Fairfax city County | 7 | 42.9% | 57.1% | 0% | 1983 |
| Falls Church city County | 5 | 60% | 20% | 20% | 1998 |
| Hopewell city County | 5 | 80% | 20% | 0% | 1999 |
| Mathews County | 5 | 0% | 60% | 40% | 1963 |
| Galax city County (this page) | 5 | 40% | 60% | 0% | 1966 |
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 Galax city County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Good-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.