Total bridges
34
Public highway bridges in Harrisonburg city County
County profile · official public datasets
Harrisonburg city County, VA
34 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.1% rated Good, 41.2% Fair, 14.7% Poor.
- 34
- Public bridges
- 44.1%
- Good condition
- 14.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Harrisonburg city County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 123rd
- of 129 on Poor share
- 14.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 34
- 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.
Harrisonburg city County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Harrisonburg city County ranks #123 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 14.7%). Harrisonburg city County, Virginia contains 34 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.1% are rated “Good,” 41.2% “Fair,” and 14.7% “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
44.1%
15 of 34 rated 7-9
Fair condition
41.2%
14 of 34 rated 5-6
Poor condition
14.7%
5 of 34 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#123 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 34 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 44.1% (15)
Fair 41.2% (14)
Poor 14.7% (5)
Harrisonburg city County's Poor-condition bridges carry 52,783 vehicle crossings a day
That is 17.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 14.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 10,557 crossings a day against 8,143 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 34 of 34 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
52.9% of Harrisonburg city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
18 of the 34 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 44.1% 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 28.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
ROUTE 33 WBL over I-81, built 1960, carries 14,883 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 52,783 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Harrisonburg city County's bridges were built
34 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
7 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
7 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
10 bridges
- 2000s 2
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Virginia average (1974).
How Harrisonburg city County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Harrisonburg city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 14.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex County | 37 | 21.6% | 73% | 5.4% | 1980 |
| Bristol city County | 34 | 35.3% | 50% | 14.7% | 1954 |
| Powhatan County | 34 | 20.6% | 73.5% | 5.9% | 1977 |
| Harrisonburg city County (this page) | 34 | 44.1% | 41.2% | 14.7% | 1977 |
| King and Queen County | 32 | 31.3% | 59.4% | 9.4% | 1977 |
| King William County | 32 | 25% | 75% | 0% | 1976 |
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 Harrisonburg 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 Harrisonburg city County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (34 bridges here).
- Bear Lake County, ID · 34 bridges
- Plaquemines County, LA · 34 bridges
- Golden Valley County, ND · 34 bridges
- Guayanilla County, PR · 34 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.
Poor-condition bridges (5)
ROUTE 33 WBL
PoorOver: I-81
0.32 CANTREL -0.25 BURGES, Harrisonburg city, VA
Built 1960 Load: 20.5 t ADT: 14,883
PLEASANT VALLEY RD
PoorOver: I-81
0.18 RTE 11-0.05 RTE 973, Harrisonburg city, VA
Built 1959 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 6,643
ROUTE 33 WBL
PoorOver: NS RAILWAY & CREEK
.04 TO CNTRL-.02 TO I-81R, Harrisonburg city, VA
Built 1960 Load: 37.2 t ADT: 8,187
ROUTE 33 EBL
PoorOver: I-81
.32 CANTREL - .83 BURGESS, Harrisonburg city, VA
Built 1960 Load: 43.4 t ADT: 14,883
ROUTE 33 EBL
PoorOver: NS RAILWAY & CREEK
0.04 CNTRL-0.02 I81S RAMP, Harrisonburg city, VA
Built 1960 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 8,187
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.