County profile · official public datasets

Shenandoah County, VA

213 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.5% rated Good, 54% Fair, 0.5% Poor.

213
Public bridges: 45.5%
Good condition: 0.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Shenandoah County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 21%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.5%
Poor-condition share: 213
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.

Shenandoah County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Shenandoah County ranks #27 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.5%). Shenandoah County, Virginia contains 213 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.5% are rated “Good,” 54% “Fair,” and 0.5% “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

213

Public highway bridges in Shenandoah County

Good condition

45.5%

97 of 213 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54%

115 of 213 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.5%

1 of 213 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 213 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45.5% (97)

Fair

54% (115)

Poor

0.5% (1)

Shenandoah County's Poor-condition bridges carry 552 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 552 crossings a day against 982 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 213 of 213 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

67.1% of Shenandoah County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

143 of the 213 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 45.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RED BANKS RD over N FORK SHENANDOAH RIVER, built 1961, carries 552 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 552 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1920s

4
1930s

44
1940s

6
1950s

16
1960s

64
1970s

12
1980s

6
1990s

33
2000s

13
2010s

9
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 64 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 is 1967, 7 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.

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

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Shenandoah County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Shenandoah County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Shenandoah County (this page)	213	45.5%	54%	0.5%	1967
Bedford County	204	52%	45.1%	2.9%	1967
Roanoke County	204	37.7%	62.3%	0%	1969
Tazewell County	204	21.6%	74%	4.4%	1970
Botetourt County	202	29.2%	70.8%	0%	1968
Norfolk city County	199	15.6%	84.4%	0%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (213 bridges here).

Bonneville County, ID · 213 bridges
Floyd County, IA · 213 bridges
Calhoun County, MI · 213 bridges
Alcorn County, MS · 213 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.

All 213 Good 97 Fair 115 Poor 1

All bridges (213)

Sort:

Shenandoah County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Shenandoah County's Poor-condition bridges carry 552 vehicle crossings a day

67.1% of Shenandoah County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Shenandoah 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 (213)

JUNCTION RD

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

MILL CREEK RD

WISSLER RD

TEA BERRY RD

I-81 NBL

BROOK CREEK RD

I-81 S ON RAMP C

HARRISVILLE RD

PLANES MILL RD

WEST SPRING ST

I-81 NBL

I-81 NBL

MT JACKSON RD

MAURERTOWN MILL RD

I-81 SBL

I-81 SBL

EAST LEE HWY - WBL

SOUTH MIDDLE RD

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

I-81 SBL

MT OLIVE RD

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

EAST LEE HWY - EBL

OLD VALLEY PK -NBL

I-81 SBL

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

ROUTE 11 SBL

WARDENSVILLE PIKE

SOUTH OX RD

ALUM SPRINGS RD

MINEBANK RD

CAVERNS RD

WEST RESERVOIR RD

CAVERNS RD

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

MT HEBRON RD

HAMBURG RD

FAIRVIEW RD

I-81 NBL

I-81 SBL

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