County profile · official public datasets

Webster County, WV

82 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26.8% rated Good, 58.5% Fair, 14.6% Poor.

82
Public bridges: 26.8%
Good condition: 14.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Webster County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 35%
lowest Poor share in state: 14.6%
Poor-condition share: 82
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Webster County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Webster County ranks #19 of 55 West Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 14.6%). Webster County, West Virginia contains 82 public highway bridges. Roughly 26.8% are rated “Good,” 58.5% “Fair,” and 14.6% “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 Webster County

Good condition

26.8%

22 of 82 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58.5%

48 of 82 rated 5-6

Poor condition

14.6%

12 of 82 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#19 of 55

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

Condition distribution

Share of 82 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

26.8% (22)

Fair

58.5% (48)

Poor

14.6% (12)

Webster County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,070 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 14.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 339 crossings a day against 559 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 81 of 82 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

34.1% of Webster County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

28 of the 82 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 26.8% 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 27% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

WV 20 over GRASSY CREEK, built 1924, carries 1,100 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 4,070 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

8
1930s

2
1940s

4
1950s

7
1960s

4
1970s

8
1980s

12
1990s

19
2000s

9
2010s

2
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 19 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 (1978) matches the West Virginia average (1980).

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

The 5 West Virginia counties nearest Webster County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 14.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1976 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 Webster County and the 5 West Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Barbour County	93	12.9%	72%	15.1%	1957
Hampshire County	92	23.9%	65.2%	10.9%	1978
Clay County	87	32.2%	54%	13.8%	1987
Marshall County	85	31.8%	38.8%	29.4%	1978
Webster County (this page)	82	26.8%	58.5%	14.6%	1978
Tyler County	73	32.9%	46.6%	20.5%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WV (82 bridges here).

Murray County, GA · 82 bridges
Gallatin County, IL · 82 bridges
Thomas County, KS · 82 bridges
Nicholas County, KY · 82 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WV (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 82 Good 22 Fair 48 Poor 12

All bridges (82)

Sort:

Webster County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Webster County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,070 vehicle crossings a day

34.1% of Webster County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 27% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Webster 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 (82)

COUNTY ROUTE 20/23

COUNTY ROUTE 34

FR 911

COUNTY ROUTE 3

COUNTY ROUTE 46

CO 36

WV 20 (F)

COUNTY ROUTE 26

WV 82

COUNTY ROUTE 34

COUNTY ROUTE 46

COUNTY ROUTE 26/1

COUNTY ROUTE 5/1

CO 36

COUNTY ROUTE 20/19

River Bend Road

PARK ROUTE 803

COUNTY ROUTE 18/3

WV ROUTE 20 F

WV 20

COUNTY ROUTE 20/27

CO 3/4 (SLS)

COUNTY ROUTE 15/7

WV 20

COUNTY ROUTE 26/4

COUNTY ROUTE 32

WV 20

FR 86

COUNTY ROUTE 7

WV 20

WV 20

P&F 801

COUNTY ROUTE 26/1

COUNTY ROUTE 9 SLS

COUNTY ROUTE 18

COUNTY ROUTE 8/4

COUNTY ROUTE 20/9

COUNTY ROUTE 15/3

COUNTY ROUTE 18

COUNTY ROUTE 9

COUNTY ROUTE 9

WV 82

COUNTY ROUTE 9

COUNTY ROUTE 9

COUNTY ROUTE 9

COUNTY ROUTE 15/3

COUNTY ROUTE 44

COUNTY ROUTE 26/4

NO DATA ENTERED

HARP ROUTE 923

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