County profile · official public datasets

Petersburg city County, VA

41 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29.3% rated Good, 61% Fair, 9.8% Poor.

41
Public bridges
29.3%
Good condition
9.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Petersburg city 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.

113th
of 129 on Poor share
9.8%
Poor-condition share
41
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.

Petersburg city County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Petersburg city County ranks #113 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.8%). Petersburg city County, Virginia contains 41 public highway bridges. Roughly 29.3% are rated “Good,” 61% “Fair,” and 9.8% “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

41

Public highway bridges in Petersburg city County

Good condition

29.3%

12 of 41 rated 7-9

Fair condition

61%

25 of 41 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.8%

4 of 41 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#113 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 41 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
29.3% (12)
Fair
61% (25)
Poor
9.8% (4)

Petersburg city County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,397 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,599 crossings a day against 6,619 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 41 of 41 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

29.3% of Petersburg city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

12 of the 41 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 29.3% 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 48.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SYCAMORE STREET over LIEUTENANT RUN, built 1945, carries 8,965 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 18,397 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Petersburg city County's bridges were built

41 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 5 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Petersburg city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 8 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Petersburg city County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Petersburg city County (this page) 41 9.8%
Cumberland County 39 2.6%
Clarke County 38 0%
Essex County 37 5.4%
Bristol city County 34 14.7%
Harrisonburg city County 34 14.7%

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 Petersburg 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 Petersburg city County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (41 bridges here).

Similar average build year

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

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

Poor-condition bridges (4)

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.