County profile · official public datasets

Pulaski County, VA

105 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30.5% rated Good, 66.7% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

105
Public bridges: 30.5%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pulaski County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 47%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 105
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Pulaski County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pulaski County ranks #60 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Pulaski County, Virginia contains 105 public highway bridges. Roughly 30.5% are rated “Good,” 66.7% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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

105

Public highway bridges in Pulaski County

Good condition

30.5%

32 of 105 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.7%

70 of 105 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

3 of 105 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#60 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 105 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30.5% (32)

Fair

66.7% (70)

Poor

2.9% (3)

Pulaski County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,851 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5,617 crossings a day against 1,542 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 105 of 105 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

66.7% of Pulaski County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

70 of the 105 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 30.5% 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 44.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

ROUTE 0011 over Sproules Run, built 1936, carries 7,544 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 16,851 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

24
1950s

7
1960s

29
1970s

13
1980s

5
1990s

11
2000s

7
2010s

2
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 9 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.

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

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Pulaski County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 12 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pulaski County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Stafford County	112	38.4%	59.8%	1.8%	1987
Caroline County	107	22.4%	72.9%	4.7%	1975
Sussex County	105	13.3%	86.7%	0%	1973
Pulaski County (this page)	105	30.5%	66.7%	2.9%	1965
Spotsylvania County	102	35.3%	64.7%	0%	1980
Culpeper County	99	26.3%	69.7%	4%	1971

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (105 bridges here).

Bradley County, AR · 105 bridges
Fulton County, AR · 105 bridges
Izard County, AR · 105 bridges
Calaveras County, CA · 105 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges

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

All 105 Good 32 Fair 70 Poor 3

All bridges (105)

Sort:

Pulaski County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pulaski County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,851 vehicle crossings a day

66.7% of Pulaski County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 44.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pulaski 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 (105)

Newbern Road

JuliaSimpkinsRd693

Highland Rd/627

NBL ROUTE 0081

Cox Hollow Rd./641

FarrisMineRd/693

NBL ROUTE 81

SBL ROUTE 0081

SimpkinstownRd/665

RobinsonTractRd738

NBL ROUTE 0081

SBL ROUTE 0081

NEWBERN ROAD/611

ROUTE 0011

ROUTE 0611

Lee Hwy NBL / 11

Lee Hwy NBL/Rte 11

I-81; FO47; FO64

NBL ROUTE 0081

SBL ROUTE 0081

Little Crk.Rd./601

SBL ROUTE 0081

NBL ROUTE 0081

CherryBranchRd/613

SBL ROUTE 0081

CLEBURNE BLVD./100

OLDBALTIMORE RD654

NBL ROUTE 0081

Lee Highway /11NBL

Old Balt. Rd./654

OldBaltimoreRd/658

ROUTE 0000

SBL ROUTE 0081

RTE. 11 SBL

NBL ROUTE 0081

NBL ROUTE 0081

ROUTE 0000

STATE PARK RD/660

OLD RTE. 11

ROUTE 0000

SBL ROUTE 0081

Gum Log Road / 620

ROUTE 0099

ClebourneBlvd/100

SBL ROUTE 0081

PondlickHollow/674

CougarTrail Rd/643

LittleCreekRd/R601

BOONE FURNACERD607

CleburneBlvdNBL100

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