County profile · official public datasets

Emmet County, IA

78 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 23.1% rated Good, 60.3% Fair, 16.7% Poor.

78
Public bridges: 23.1%
Good condition: 16.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 41%
lowest Poor share in state: 16.7%
Poor-condition share: 78
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Emmet County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Emmet County ranks #41 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.7%). Emmet County, Iowa contains 78 public highway bridges. Roughly 23.1% are rated “Good,” 60.3% “Fair,” and 16.7% “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 Emmet County

Good condition

23.1%

18 of 78 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.3%

47 of 78 rated 5-6

Poor condition

16.7%

13 of 78 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#41 of 99

Among Iowa counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 78 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

23.1% (18)

Fair

60.3% (47)

Poor

16.7% (13)

Emmet County's Poor-condition bridges carry 564 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 43 crossings a day against 851 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 78 of 78 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

48.7% of Emmet County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

38 of the 78 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 23.1% 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 33.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FM over SOLDIER CREEK, built 1967, carries 190 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 13-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 564 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

2
1910s

2
1930s

1
1940s

1
1950s

7
1960s

12
1970s

26
1980s

10
1990s

6
2000s

3
2010s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 6 years older than the Iowa average of 1979.

How Emmet County compares with Iowa's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Emmet County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 98 Iowa counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Emmet County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Monroe County	130	26.2%	49.2%	24.6%	1977
Worth County	116	35.3%	48.3%	16.4%	1970
Humboldt County	87	36.8%	52.9%	10.3%	1965
Dickinson County	84	40.5%	41.7%	17.9%	1981
Emmet County (this page)	78	23.1%	60.3%	16.7%	1973
Winnebago County	55	30.9%	36.4%	32.7%	1984

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 Emmet 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 Emmet County, both outside Iowa so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (78 bridges here).

Winston County, AL · 78 bridges
Marion County, FL · 78 bridges
Bryan County, GA · 78 bridges
Macon County, GA · 78 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges

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

All 78 Good 18 Fair 47 Poor 13

Fair-condition bridges (47)

Sort:

Emmet County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Emmet County's Poor-condition bridges carry 564 vehicle crossings a day

48.7% of Emmet County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Emmet County compares with Iowa'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 (47)

WS 1ST ST

LOCAL

FM

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

FM

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

FM

LOCAL

LOCAL

LOCAL

N 4TH ST

FM

LOCAL

FM

LOCAL

LOCAL

FM

FM

FM

FM

FM

FM

FM

IA 15

LOCAL

LOCAL

IA 9

LOCAL

IA 15

LOCAL

LOCAL

IA 9

LOCAL

Related