County profile · official public datasets

Lewis County, WV

159 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.4% rated Good, 65.4% Fair, 13.2% Poor.

159
Public bridges: 21.4%
Good condition: 13.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lewis 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 22%
lowest Poor share in state: 13.2%
Poor-condition share: 159
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Lewis County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lewis County ranks #12 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 13.2%). Lewis County, West Virginia contains 159 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.4% are rated “Good,” 65.4% “Fair,” and 13.2% “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

159

Public highway bridges in Lewis County

Good condition

21.4%

34 of 159 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.4%

104 of 159 rated 5-6

Poor condition

13.2%

21 of 159 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#12 of 55

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

Condition distribution

Share of 159 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

21.4% (34)

Fair

65.4% (104)

Poor

13.2% (21)

Lewis County's Poor-condition bridges carry 99,580 vehicle crossings a day

That is 20.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 13.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,742 crossings a day against 1,566 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 159 of 159 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

56.6% of Lewis County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 159 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 21.4% 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 15% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-79 NBL over McKinney Run and Co 3, built 1970, carries 14,950 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 21-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 99,580 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

10
1920s

30
1930s

6
1940s

6
1950s

8
1960s

4
1970s

31
1980s

19
1990s

15
2000s

14
2010s

12
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 14 years older than the West Virginia average of 1980.

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

The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Lewis County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 13.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 17 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lewis County and the 5 West Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Mercer County	174	2.3%	72.4%	25.3%	1977
Mingo County	165	29.1%	55.8%	15.2%	1992
Wayne County	163	20.9%	60.7%	18.4%	1982
Wyoming County	160	3.1%	63.8%	33.1%	1985
Lewis County (this page)	159	21.4%	65.4%	13.2%	1966
Braxton County	148	16.9%	73.6%	9.5%	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 Lewis 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 Lewis County, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WV (159 bridges here).

Franklin County, IN · 159 bridges
Decatur County, KS · 159 bridges
Cheyenne County, NE · 159 bridges
Morgan County, OH · 159 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 159 Good 34 Fair 104 Poor 21

All bridges (159)

Sort:

COUNTY ROUTE 50/6

Fair

Over: LITTLE KANAWHA RIVER

0.01MI E OF CO 50, Lewis, WV

Built 2000 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 50

COUNTY ROUTE 1/7

Fair

Over: GEELICK RUN

0.58 MI W OF CO RT 1, Lewis, WV

Built 2001 Load: 62.6 t ADT: 750

I-79 N & S

Fair

Over: CO 14/1

2.73 MI S CO 7, Lewis, WV

Built 1971 Load: 70.7 t ADT: 27,800

COUNTY ROUTE 10

Fair

Over: ALUM FORK

0.26 MI E CO 10/1, Lewis, WV

Lewis County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lewis County's Poor-condition bridges carry 99,580 vehicle crossings a day

56.6% of Lewis County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lewis 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 (159)

COUNTY ROUTE 50/6

COUNTY ROUTE 1/7

I-79 N & S

COUNTY ROUTE 10

COUNTY ROUTE 11/5

US 33

COUNTY ROUTE 10

CO RT 30/14 SLS

COUNTY 33/22 (SLS)

I-79 S

COUNTY ROUTE 8 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 18

COUNTY ROUTE 28

HARP RT 902

COUNTY ROUTE 1 SLS

I-79 N

COUNTY ROUTE 11

COUNTY ROUTE 1/7

COUNTY ROUTE 26

COUNTY ROUTE 44

COUNTY ROAD 33/25

COUNTY ROUTE 26/3

US RT 19 F

COUNTY ROUTE 1 SLS

County Route 30

COUNTY ROUTE 119/7

CO RT 24 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 17

COUNTY ROUTE 44

COUNTY ROUTE 19/20

COUNTY ROUTE 50

COUNTY ROUTE 119/1

COUNTY ROUTE 48/6

WEST FOURTH STREET

CO ROUTE 11 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 19/10

COUNTY ROUTE 15

COUNTY ROUTE 44

COUNTY ROUTE 19/17

WEST FOURTH STREET

COUNTY ROUTE 6 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 38/3

COUNTY ROUTE 2

COUNTY ROUTE 50/11

US 19

US ROUTE 33 F

COUNTY RTE 119/16

COUNTY ROUTE 23

COUNTY ROUTE 14

COUNTY ROUTE 1

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