County profile · official public datasets

Prince William County, VA

303 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.5% rated Good, 44.2% Fair, 1.3% Poor.

303
Public bridges: 54.5%
Good condition: 1.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Prince William County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 30%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.3%
Poor-condition share: 303
public highway bridges: 1989
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.

Prince William County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Prince William County ranks #39 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Prince William County, Virginia contains 303 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.5% are rated “Good,” 44.2% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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

303

Public highway bridges in Prince William County

Good condition

54.5%

165 of 303 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.2%

134 of 303 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.3%

4 of 303 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 303 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.5% (165)

Fair

44.2% (134)

Poor

1.3% (4)

Prince William County's Poor-condition bridges carry 127,052 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 31,763 crossings a day against 13,875 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 303 of 303 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

25.7% of Prince William County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

78 of the 303 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 54.5% 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 59.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

INTERSTATE RT.95SB over NEABSCO CREEK, built 1963, carries 75,952 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 127,052 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1920s

4
1930s

4
1940s

11
1950s

13
1960s

31
1970s

21
1980s

31
1990s

72
2000s

71
2010s

37
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 72 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 15 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.

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

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Prince William County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 17 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Prince William County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chesterfield County	322	20.8%	76.7%	2.5%	1984
Prince William County (this page)	303	54.5%	44.2%	1.3%	1989
Rockingham County	288	53.1%	43.8%	3.1%	1972
Buchanan County	283	12%	83.4%	4.6%	1967
Pittsylvania County	267	40.8%	53.9%	5.2%	1977
Albemarle County	262	34.4%	63.7%	1.9%	1962

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (303 bridges here).

Pottawatomie County, KS · 303 bridges
Callaway County, MO · 303 bridges
Custer County, NE · 303 bridges
Sandusky County, OH · 303 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1989 here).

Harris County, TX · avg 1989 · 4,029 bridges
Mecklenburg County, NC · avg 1989 · 746 bridges
Buffalo County, NE · avg 1989 · 459 bridges
Brazos County, TX · avg 1989 · 370 bridges

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

All 303 Good 165 Fair 134 Poor 4

All bridges (303)

Sort:

Prince William County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Prince William County's Poor-condition bridges carry 127,052 vehicle crossings a day

25.7% of Prince William County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 59.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Prince William 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 (303)

JAMES MADISON HWY

I-66 WBL

I-66 EBL

RUGBY ROAD EAST

LUCASVILLE ROAD

ROUTE I95 NBL

JOHN MARSHALL HWY.

NOKESVILLE ROAD

I-95 SB

ANTIOCH ROAD

234 WBL

I-66 WBL

MCB-8

RTE. 28 RAMP C

RTE.234 NBL

INTERSTATE 95_NBL

RTE.66 EBL

PRINCE WILLIAM PKY

BAUER ROAD

PRINCE WM. PARKWAY

ADEN ROAD

DALE BOULEVARD

MCB-8

JEFF.DAVIS HWY SBL

I-95 HOV

GLENKIRK ROAD

DAWSON BEACH ROAD

ROBIN DRIVE

ROUTE I-95 NBL

ROUTE 1 - MAIN ST.

234 BYPASS NBL

JAMES MADISON HWY

OPITZ BOULEVARD

ASHTON AVE

SBL ROUTE 0095

SUDLEY MANOR DR.

RAMP A FR NOKSVL

BUCKLAND MILL ROAD

ROUTE 66 EB

JEFF. DAVIS HWY.

POTOMAC MILLS ROAD

LEE HIGHWAY_NB

SUDLEY ROAD

I-95 NB

WBL ROUTE 0066

HEATHCOTE BLVD.

MONTGOMERY AVENUE

234 CONNECTOR C

S.B. FLYOVER RAMP

SBL ROUTE 0095

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