County profile · official public datasets

Clay County, WV

87 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.2% rated Good, 54% Fair, 13.8% Poor.

87
Public bridges: 32.2%
Good condition: 13.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 27%
lowest Poor share in state: 13.8%
Poor-condition share: 87
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Clay County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clay County ranks #15 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 13.8%). Clay County, West Virginia contains 87 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.2% are rated “Good,” 54% “Fair,” and 13.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Clay County

Good condition

32.2%

28 of 87 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54%

47 of 87 rated 5-6

Poor condition

13.8%

12 of 87 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 55

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

Condition distribution

Share of 87 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

32.2% (28)

Fair

54% (47)

Poor

13.8% (12)

Clay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,440 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 13.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 537 crossings a day against 215 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 87 of 87 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

24.1% of Clay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 87 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 32.2% 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 23.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

WV 16 over MIDDLE CREEK, built 1944, carries 1,500 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,440 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

7
1940s

5
1950s

2
1970s

10
1980s

8
1990s

27
2000s

9
2010s

13
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 7 years newer than the West Virginia average of 1980.

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

The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Clay County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 13.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 13 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 54 West Virginia counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Clay County and the 5 West Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Grant County	97	21.6%	64.9%	13.4%	1980
Barbour County	93	12.9%	72%	15.1%	1957
Hampshire County	92	23.9%	65.2%	10.9%	1978
Clay County (this page)	87	32.2%	54%	13.8%	1987
Marshall County	85	31.8%	38.8%	29.4%	1978
Webster County	82	26.8%	58.5%	14.6%	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 Clay 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 Clay County, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WV (87 bridges here).

Modoc County, CA · 87 bridges
Hendry County, FL · 87 bridges
Adams County, ID · 87 bridges
Humboldt County, IA · 87 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
St. Louis County, MN · avg 1987 · 663 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges

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

All 87 Good 28 Fair 47 Poor 12

All bridges (87)

Sort:

Clay County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Clay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,440 vehicle crossings a day

24.1% of Clay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 23.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Clay County compares with West 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 (87)

CR 1

COUNTY ROUTE 1

WV 16

COUNTY ROUTE 16/25

COUNTY ROUTE 15/3

CR 15/3

COUNTY ROUTE 16/25

WV 4

WV 4

WV RT 4

I-79 OFF-RAMP "A"

WV 16

COUNTY RT 16/15

I-79 NBL

I-79 SBL

COUNTY ROUTE 16/1

COUNTY ROUTE 15/4

CR 14

CR 11/8

COUNTY ROUTE 28

WV 16

COUNTY ROUTE 15/4

WV 16

CR 52

COUNTY ROUTE 7

COUNTY ROUTE 1/4

COUNTY ROUTE 11

CR 15

COUNTY ROUTE 11

CR 1

CR 17

CR 13/7

I-79 ON-RAMP "D"

COUNTY ROUTE 36/1

COUNTY ROUTE 16/6

COUNTY ROUTE 19

COUNTY ROUTE 15/2

COUNTY ROUTE 24

CR 19

COUNTY ROUTE 11

COUNTY ROUTE 19/1

COUNTY RT 17

CR 17

COUNTY ROUTE 15

CR 5

CR 5

I-79 NB & SB

COUNTY ROUTE 16/25

CR 4/5

CR 11/9

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