Total bridges
78
Public highway bridges in Emmet County
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.
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.
When Emmet County's bridges were built
78 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
12 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s 10
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s 6
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 7
2010–2019
7 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (18)
IA 4
GoodOver: DRAINAGE DITCH #2
1.6 MI. N OF CO. RD. B14, Emmet, IA
Built 2019 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 1,740
IA 4
GoodOver: DRAINAGE DITCH #94
2.5 MI. N. OF CO.RD. B-14, Emmet, IA
Built 2019 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 1,740
200TH ST
GoodOver: W FORK DES MOINES RIVER
099333101, Emmet, IA
Built 2012 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 419
210TH ST
GoodOver: JACK CREEK
098320401, Emmet, IA
Built 2011 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 219
LOCAL
GoodOver: SOLDIER CREEK
100331102, Emmet, IA
Built 2004 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 30
LOCAL
GoodOver: DENMARK
098323601, Emmet, IA
Built 1997 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 26
IA 15
GoodOver: BLACK CAT CREEK
6.4 mi. S of IA 9, Emmet, IA
Built 1991 Load: 35.8 t ADT: 970
IA 9
GoodOver: BROWN CREEK
1.8 mi E of Jct IA 4, Emmet, IA
Built 1986 Load: 37.4 t ADT: 2,740
FM
GoodOver: WEST DES MOINES RIVER
100343408, Emmet, IA
Built 2006 Load: 38.2 t ADT: 709
N 52 490TH AVE
GoodOver: JACK CR DD #17
98321502, Emmet, IA
Built 2019 Load: 39.5 t ADT: 589
N 52 490TH AVE
GoodOver: JACK CREEK
098322204, Emmet, IA
Built 2019 Load: 39.5 t ADT: 549
A17 130TH ST
GoodOver: W FORK DES MOINES RIVER
100342801, Emmet, IA
Built 2019 Load: 42.8 t ADT: 240
LOCAL
GoodOver: JACK CREEK
0983233, Emmet, IA
Built 2002 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 34
FM
GoodOver: SOLDIER CREEK
100322801, Emmet, IA
Built 1994 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 279
LOCAL
GoodOver: SOLDIER CREEK
100321804, Emmet, IA
Built 1999 Load: 45.5 t ADT: 15
IA 4
GoodOver: DRAINAGE DITCH
1.5 mi. N of N Jct SR A34, Emmet, IA
Built 1984 Load: 49.6 t ADT: 2,050
IA 4
GoodOver: WEST FK DES MOINES RIVER
1.1 mi. S of Jct. IA 9, Emmet, IA
Built 1981 Load: 54.7 t ADT: 2,960
LOCAL
GoodOver: DD #17 JACK CREEK
098321601, Emmet, IA
Built 1977 Load: 83.6 t ADT: 5
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.