Total bridges
130
Public highway bridges in Roane County
County profile · official public datasets
Roane County, WV
130 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.2% rated Good, 34.6% Fair, 26.2% Poor.
- 130
- Public bridges
- 39.2%
- Good condition
- 26.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Roane County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 47th
- of 55 on Poor share
- 26.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 130
- public highway bridges
- 1976
- 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.
Roane County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Roane County ranks #47 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 26.2%). Roane County, West Virginia contains 130 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.2% are rated “Good,” 34.6% “Fair,” and 26.2% “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.
Good condition
39.2%
51 of 130 rated 7-9
Fair condition
34.6%
45 of 130 rated 5-6
Poor condition
26.2%
34 of 130 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 55
Among West Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 130 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 39.2% (51)
Fair 34.6% (45)
Poor 26.2% (34)
Roane County's Poor-condition bridges carry 45,220 vehicle crossings a day
That is 29.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 26.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,330 crossings a day against 793 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 130 of 130 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
44.6% of Roane County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
58 of the 130 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 39.2% 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 21.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I-79 NORTH over COOKMAN FORK OF SANDY CK, built 1972, carries 9,800 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 34-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 45,220 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Roane County's bridges were built
130 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 2
Built before 1900
2 bridges
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 7
1910–1919
7 bridges
- 1920s 10
1920–1929
10 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
14 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
28 bridges
- 1980s 9
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
18 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
14 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
13 bridges
- 2020s 8
2020–2029
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1976) matches the West Virginia average (1980).
How Roane County compares with West Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Roane County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 26.2% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 54 West Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mason County | 137 | 32.8% | 51.1% | 16.1% | 1989 |
| Putnam County | 135 | 32.6% | 51.9% | 15.6% | 1987 |
| Boone County | 131 | 23.7% | 60.3% | 16% | 1986 |
| Hardy County | 131 | 22.1% | 69.5% | 8.4% | 1982 |
| Roane County (this page) | 130 | 39.2% | 34.6% | 26.2% | 1976 |
| Ritchie County | 127 | 33.9% | 39.4% | 26.8% | 1967 |
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 Roane 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 Roane County, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WV (130 bridges here).
- Kit Carson County, CO · 130 bridges
- Bay County, FL · 130 bridges
- Lowndes County, GA · 130 bridges
- Whitfield County, GA · 130 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1976 here).
- Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
- Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
- Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (51)
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.