County profile · official public datasets

Madison County, VA

80 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28.8% rated Good, 65% Fair, 6.3% Poor.

80
Public bridges: 28.8%
Good condition: 6.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Madison County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

99th
of 129 on Poor share: 6.3%
Poor-condition share: 80
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Madison County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Madison County ranks #99 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.3%). Madison County, Virginia contains 80 public highway bridges. Roughly 28.8% are rated “Good,” 65% “Fair,” and 6.3% “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 Madison County

Good condition

28.8%

23 of 80 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65%

52 of 80 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.3%

5 of 80 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#99 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

28.8% (23)

Fair

65% (52)

Poor

6.3% (5)

Madison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 252 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 50 crossings a day against 1,415 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.

61.3% of Madison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

49 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 28.8% 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 36.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Duet Road over Leathers Run, built 1990, carries 92 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 252 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

4
1940s

8
1950s

4
1960s

24
1970s

11
1980s

8
1990s

14
2000s

3
2010s

1
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 24 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1971) matches the Virginia average (1974).

How Madison County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Madison County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.3% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Madison 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
Isle of Wight County	80	30%	65%	5%	1979
Lynchburg city County	80	55%	42.5%	2.5%	1977
Madison County (this page)	80	28.8%	65%	6.3%	1971
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 Madison 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 Madison 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 (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 80 Good 23 Fair 52 Poor 5

Fair-condition bridges (52)

Sort:

Madison County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Madison County's Poor-condition bridges carry 252 vehicle crossings a day

61.3% of Madison County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 36.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Madison 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

Fair-condition bridges (52)

Garth Run Road

HOOVER ROAD

HOOVER ROAD

Poor House Road

Weakley Hollow Rd

Thrift Road

Fletcher Road

Old Blue Ridge Tpk

Wolftown-Hood Road

S. FT Valley Road

Novum Church Road

Lillards Ford Road

W Hoover Road

Oneals Road

Spring Branch Road

Beahm Town Road

Aylor Road

Old Blue Ridge Tpk

Tinsley Road

Fishback Road

Kinderhook Road

Oak Park Road

Bridle Trail Lane

Hebron Valley Road

Old Blue Ridge Tpk

Finks Hollow Lane

Hebron Church Road

Mill Hill Road

S FT Valley Road

Bohannon Road

Locust Grove Ch Rd

Twymans Mill Road

Weakley Hollow Rd

Shelby Road

N Blue Ridge Tpk

Jacks Shop Road

SBL Seminole Trail

Oak Park Road

Seville Road

James Madison Hwy.

S FT Valley Road

Church Hill Road

S Blue Ridge Tpk.

Beautiful Run Road

Ruth Road

Quaker Run Road

W Hoover Road

James Madison Hwy.

Wallace Gap Lane

Fords Shop Road

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