Total bridges
102
Public highway bridges in Spotsylvania County
County profile · official public datasets
Spotsylvania County, VA
102 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35.3% rated Good, 64.7% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 102
- Public bridges
- 35.3%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Spotsylvania County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 6%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 102
- public highway bridges
- 1980
- 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.
Spotsylvania County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Spotsylvania County ranks #8 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Spotsylvania County, Virginia contains 102 public highway bridges. Roughly 35.3% are rated “Good,” 64.7% “Fair,” and 0% “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
35.3%
36 of 102 rated 7-9
Fair condition
64.7%
66 of 102 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 102 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#8 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 102 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 35.3% (36)
Fair 64.7% (66)
Poor 0% (0)
51% of Spotsylvania County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
52 of the 102 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 35.3% 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.
When Spotsylvania County's bridges were built
102 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s 5
1930–1939
5 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
30 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
15 bridges
- 1980s 8
1980–1989
8 bridges
- 1990s 11
1990–1999
11 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
16 bridges
- 2010s 10
2010–2019
10 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 30 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 6 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.
How Spotsylvania County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Spotsylvania County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 9 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caroline County | 107 | 22.4% | 72.9% | 4.7% | 1975 |
| Pulaski County | 105 | 30.5% | 66.7% | 2.9% | 1965 |
| Sussex County | 105 | 13.3% | 86.7% | 0% | 1973 |
| Spotsylvania County (this page) | 102 | 35.3% | 64.7% | 0% | 1980 |
| Culpeper County | 99 | 26.3% | 69.7% | 4% | 1971 |
| Charlotte County | 97 | 38.1% | 58.8% | 3.1% | 1973 |
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 Spotsylvania 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 Spotsylvania County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (102 bridges here).
- La Plata County, CO · 102 bridges
- Clarke County, GA · 102 bridges
- Pulaski County, IN · 102 bridges
- Clark County, KS · 102 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1980 here).
- Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
- Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
- Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
- McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (102)
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.