Total bridges
93
Public highway bridges in Barbour County
County profile · official public datasets
Barbour County, WV
93 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 12.9% rated Good, 72% Fair, 15.1% Poor.
- 93
- Public bridges
- 12.9%
- Good condition
- 15.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Barbour 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 36%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 15.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 93
- public highway bridges
- 1957
- 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.
Barbour County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Barbour County ranks #20 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 15.1%). Barbour County, West Virginia contains 93 public highway bridges. Roughly 12.9% are rated “Good,” 72% “Fair,” and 15.1% “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
12.9%
12 of 93 rated 7-9
Fair condition
72%
67 of 93 rated 5-6
Poor condition
15.1%
14 of 93 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#20 of 55
Among West Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 93 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 12.9% (12)
Fair 72% (67)
Poor 15.1% (14)
Barbour County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,390 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 15.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 314 crossings a day against 237 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 93 of 93 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
58.1% of Barbour County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
54 of the 93 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 12.9% 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 52.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US 119 over A&O RAILROAD, built 1937, carries 2,300 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 4,390 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Barbour County's bridges were built
93 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 3
Built before 1900
3 bridges
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s
1910–1919
22 bridges
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
9 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s 4
1960–1969
4 bridges
- 1970s 5
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 6
1980–1989
6 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
16 bridges
- 2000s 8
2000–2009
8 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1910s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 105 to 114 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1957, 23 years older than the West Virginia average of 1980.
How Barbour County compares with West Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Barbour County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 15.1% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1957 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 21 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 54 West Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doddridge County | 99 | 38.4% | 37.4% | 24.2% | 1974 |
| Upshur County | 99 | 21.2% | 66.7% | 12.1% | 1971 |
| Grant County | 97 | 21.6% | 64.9% | 13.4% | 1980 |
| Nicholas County | 97 | 25.8% | 59.8% | 14.4% | 1986 |
| Barbour County (this page) | 93 | 12.9% | 72% | 15.1% | 1957 |
| Hampshire County | 92 | 23.9% | 65.2% | 10.9% | 1978 |
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 Barbour 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 Barbour County, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WV (93 bridges here).
- Baker County, FL · 93 bridges
- Banks County, GA · 93 bridges
- Haralson County, GA · 93 bridges
- Alexander County, IL · 93 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1957 here).
- Essex County, MA · avg 1957 · 395 bridges
- Labette County, KS · avg 1957 · 349 bridges
- Greenwood County, KS · avg 1957 · 235 bridges
- Greer County, OK · avg 1957 · 230 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (14)
COUNTY ROUTE 57/15
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
0.01 MI S OF WV 57, Barbour, WV
Built 1886 Load: 3.6 t ADT: 10
COUNTY ROUTE 92/12
PoorOver: GLADE CREEK
0.72 MI N CO 40/4, Barbour, WV
Built 1972 Load: 9.1 t ADT: 10
CO ROUTE 7 SLS
PoorOver: SHOOKS RUN
0.01 MI W OF US 119 F, Barbour, WV
Built 1912 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 850
COUNTY ROUTE 26
PoorOver: MILL CREEK
0.17 MI W OF CO 26/2, Barbour, WV
Built 1939 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 150
COUNTY ROUTE 13/4
PoorOver: PECKS RUN
0.38 MI S CO 13/2, Barbour, WV
Built 1913 Load: 17.2 t ADT: 20
COUNTY ROUTE 5/3
PoorOver: BRUSHY FORK
0.01 MI S WV 38, Barbour, WV
Built 1963 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 20
COUNTY ROUTE 13/1
PoorOver: PECKS RUN
0.69 MI S CO 11/4, Barbour, WV
Built 1914 Load: 21.8 t ADT: 30
COUNTY ROUTE 15
PoorOver: MILL CREEK
0.25 MI E OF CO 48, Barbour, WV
Built 1913 Load: 21.8 t ADT: 30
COUNTY ROUTE 21
PoorOver: LAUREL RUN
0.01 MI W CO 30/7, Barbour, WV
Built 1974 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 450
US 119
PoorOver: A&O RAILROAD
1.01 MI S CO 10, Barbour, WV
Built 1937 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 2,300
COUNTY ROUTE 57/7
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
0.01 MI W OF WV 57 F, Barbour, WV
Built 1957 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 40
COUNTY ROUTE 3
PoorOver: RACCOON CREEK
0.03 MI E OF CO 3/2 SLS, Barbour, WV
Built 1959 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 300
COUNTY ROUTE 11
PoorOver: MIDDLE FORK RIVER
0.01 MI E OF CO 36, Barbour, WV
Built 1940 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 100
CO ROUTE 24 SLS
PoorOver: LAUREL CREEK
0.02 MI E OF CO RT 12 SLS, Barbour, WV
Built 1980 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 80
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.