Total bridges
13
Public highway bridges in Norton city County
County profile · official public datasets
Norton city County, VA
13 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 7.7% rated Good, 69.2% Fair, 23.1% Poor.
- 13
- Public bridges
- 7.7%
- Good condition
- 23.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Norton city County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- 128th
- of 129 on Poor share
- 23.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 13
- public highway bridges
- 1967
- 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.
Norton city County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Norton city County ranks #128 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 23.1%). Norton city County, Virginia contains 13 public highway bridges. Roughly 7.7% are rated “Good,” 69.2% “Fair,” and 23.1% “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
7.7%
1 of 13 rated 7-9
Fair condition
69.2%
9 of 13 rated 5-6
Poor condition
23.1%
3 of 13 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#128 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 13 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 7.7% (1)
Fair 69.2% (9)
Poor 23.1% (3)
Norton city County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,929 vehicle crossings a day
That is 11.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 23.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 976 crossings a day against 608 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 13 of 13 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
53.8% of Norton city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
7 of the 13 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 7.7% 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 83% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
MAIN AVENUE SW over BENGES BRANCH, built 1932, carries 2,431 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 2,929 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Norton city County's bridges were built
13 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 38.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 7 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.
How Norton city County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Norton city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 23.1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 11 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northumberland County | 16 | 31.3% | 62.5% | 6.3% | 1985 |
| Manassas city County | 13 | 30.8% | 69.2% | 0% | 1989 |
| Norton city County (this page) | 13 | 7.7% | 69.2% | 23.1% | 1967 |
| Northampton County | 12 | 75% | 16.7% | 8.3% | 1981 |
| Williamsburg city County | 12 | 41.7% | 50% | 8.3% | 1959 |
| Martinsville city County | 10 | 40% | 60% | 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 Norton 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 Norton city County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (13 bridges here).
- Bethel County, AK · 13 bridges
- San Juan County, CO · 13 bridges
- Perkins County, NE · 13 bridges
- Wheeler County, NE · 13 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1967 here).
- Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
- Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
- Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
- Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (1)
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.