Total bridges
105
Public highway bridges in Sussex County
County profile · official public datasets
Sussex County, VA
105 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 13.3% rated Good, 86.7% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 105
- Public bridges
- 13.3%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sussex County posts a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 5%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 105
- public highway bridges
- 1973
- 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.
Sussex County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sussex County ranks #7 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Sussex County, Virginia contains 105 public highway bridges. Roughly 13.3% are rated “Good,” 86.7% “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
13.3%
14 of 105 rated 7-9
Fair condition
86.7%
91 of 105 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 105 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#7 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 13.3% (14)
Fair 86.7% (91)
Poor 0% (0)
41.9% of Sussex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
44 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 13.3% 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 Sussex County's bridges were built
105 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 10
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s 13
1960–1969
13 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
21 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
39 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 2
2010–2019
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 39 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 37.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the Virginia average (1974).
How Sussex County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Sussex County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| 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 |
| Pulaski County | 105 | 30.5% | 66.7% | 2.9% | 1965 |
| Sussex County (this page) | 105 | 13.3% | 86.7% | 0% | 1973 |
| 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 Sussex 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 Sussex 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 (1973 here).
- Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
- Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
- Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
- Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (0)
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.