County profile · official public datasets

Isle of Wight County, VA

80 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30% rated Good, 65% Fair, 5% Poor.

80
Public bridges: 30%
Good condition: 5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Isle of Wight County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

84th
of 129 on Poor share: 5%
Poor-condition share: 80
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Isle of Wight County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Isle of Wight County ranks #84 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Isle of Wight County, Virginia contains 80 public highway bridges. Roughly 30% are rated “Good,” 65% “Fair,” and 5% “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

Public highway bridges in Isle of Wight County

Good condition

30%

24 of 80 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65%

52 of 80 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4 of 80 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#84 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 80 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30% (24)

Fair

65% (52)

Poor

5% (4)

Isle of Wight County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,721 vehicle crossings a day

That is 7.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,930 crossings a day against 785 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 80 of 80 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

48.8% of Isle of Wight County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

39 of the 80 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 30% 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 90.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

South Church St over Cypress Creek, built 1975, carries 10,582 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 11,721 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

3
1940s

6
1950s

16
1960s

6
1970s

12
1980s

5
1990s

12
2000s

10
2010s

6
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 5 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.

How Isle of Wight County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Isle of Wight County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Isle of Wight County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Prince Edward County	82	42.7%	51.2%	6.1%	1978
Warren County	81	34.6%	64.2%	1.2%	1974
Lynchburg city County	80	55%	42.5%	2.5%	1977
Madison County	80	28.8%	65%	6.3%	1971
Isle of Wight County (this page)	80	30%	65%	5%	1979
Dickenson County	76	7.9%	90.8%	1.3%	1970

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (80 bridges here).

Moffat County, CO · 80 bridges
Burke County, GA · 80 bridges
Gooding County, ID · 80 bridges
Madison County, ID · 80 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 80 Good 24 Fair 52 Poor 4

All bridges (80)

Sort:

Old Myrtle Road

Fair

Over: Corrowaugh Swamp

0.10 Miles From Route 612, Isle of Wight, VA

Built 1953 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 161

Franklin Bypass

Fair

Over: Trib Beaverdam Swamp

0.40 Miles from Route 656, Isle of Wight, VA

Isle of Wight County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Isle of Wight County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,721 vehicle crossings a day

48.8% of Isle of Wight County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 90.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Isle of Wight County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (80)

Old Myrtle Road

Franklin Bypass

Tomlin Hill Road

Thomas Wood Trail

Orbit Road

MILL CREEK ROAD

Rescue Road

Longview Drive

Wrenns Mill Road

ENNIS MILL ROAD

Longview Drive

Camp Family Hwy

Stallings Creek Rd

Mill Swamp Road

Whippingham Pkwy

Beaverdam Road

Carrsville Highway

Raynor Road

Scotts Factory Rd

Rescue Road

DEWS PLANTATION RD

Jones Town Road

Bows & Arrows Road

Camp Family Hwy

Camp Family Hwy

Gatling Pointe Pky

Jenkins Mill Road

Woodland Drive

Mill Swamp Road

South Church St

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