County profile · official public datasets

Upshur County, WV

99 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.2% rated Good, 66.7% Fair, 12.1% Poor.

99
Public bridges: 21.2%
Good condition: 12.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Upshur 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 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 12.1%
Poor-condition share: 99
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Upshur County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Upshur County ranks #9 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.1%). Upshur County, West Virginia contains 99 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.2% are rated “Good,” 66.7% “Fair,” and 12.1% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Upshur County

Good condition

21.2%

21 of 99 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.7%

66 of 99 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.1%

12 of 99 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#9 of 55

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

Condition distribution

Share of 99 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

21.2% (21)

Fair

66.7% (66)

Poor

12.1% (12)

Upshur County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,295 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 754 crossings a day against 425 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 98 of 99 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

35.4% of Upshur County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

35 of the 99 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 21.2% 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 50.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY ROUTE 9 SLS over BUCKHANNON RIVER, built 1935, carries 4,200 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 8,295 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

1
1910s

7
1920s

14
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

1
1960s

4
1970s

5
1980s

16
1990s

23
2000s

17
2010s

4
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 9 years older than the West Virginia average of 1980.

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

The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Upshur County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.1% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Upshur County and the 5 West Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Gilmer County	106	16%	69.8%	14.2%	1975
Doddridge County	99	38.4%	37.4%	24.2%	1974
Upshur County (this page)	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	93	12.9%	72%	15.1%	1957

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 Upshur 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 Upshur County, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WV (99 bridges here).

Washington County, FL · 99 bridges
Crisp County, GA · 99 bridges
Harris County, GA · 99 bridges
Newton County, GA · 99 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 99 Good 21 Fair 66 Poor 12

Fair-condition bridges (66)

Sort:

Upshur County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Upshur County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,295 vehicle crossings a day

35.4% of Upshur County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Upshur 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

Fair-condition bridges (66)

COUNTY ROUTE 46/4

COUNTY ROUTE 28/1

COUNTY ROUTE 32/17

COUNTY ROUTE 8

COUNTY ROUTE 3/4

COUNTY ROUTE 32/17

COUNTY ROUTE 1/13

COUNTY ROUTE 11/3

COUNTY ROUTE 16

COUNTY ROUTE 16

COUNTY ROUTE 16

COUNTY ROUTE 20/10

COUNTY ROUTE 20/11

COUNTY ROUTE 32

COUNTY ROUTE 40

CO 151 SLS

CO 12 (SLS)

COUNTY RT 5/1 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 3

COUNTY ROUTE 9 SLS

WV ROUTE 20 F

COUNTY ROUTE 9

CO 151

WV 20

US 119

US 33 E

US 33 W

COUNTY ROUTE 44/1

COUNTY ROUTE 5/5

COUNTY ROUTE 22/3

COUNTY ROUTE 22/3

COUNTY ROUTE 34

COUNTY ROUTE 20/10

COUNTY ROUTE 16/3

COUNTY ROUTE 13

US 33 EBL

COUNTY ROUTE 20/10

COUNTY ROUTE 13

US 33 X

COUNTY ROUTE 46

US 33 WBL

COUNTY ROUTE 9 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 22

WV ROUTE 20 F

COUNTY ROUTE 9 SLS

US ROUTE 33 X

COUNTY ROUTE 3 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 3 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 9/1

US ROUTE 33 X

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