County profile · official public datasets

Cottonwood County, MN

151 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 74.8% rated Good, 23.8% Fair, 1.3% Poor.

151
Public bridges: 74.8%
Good condition: 1.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cottonwood County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 9%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.3%
Poor-condition share: 151
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Cottonwood County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cottonwood County ranks #8 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Cottonwood County, Minnesota contains 151 public highway bridges. Roughly 74.8% are rated “Good,” 23.8% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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

151

Public highway bridges in Cottonwood County

Good condition

74.8%

113 of 151 rated 7-9

Fair condition

23.8%

36 of 151 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.3%

2 of 151 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 151 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

74.8% (113)

Fair

23.8% (36)

Poor

1.3% (2)

Cottonwood County's Poor-condition bridges carry 438 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 219 crossings a day against 178 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 151 of 151 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.1% of Cottonwood County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

47 of the 151 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 74.8% 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 94.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 15 over DES MOINES RIVER, built 1960, carries 415 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 438 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

2
1920s

2
1930s

9
1940s

4
1950s

6
1960s

16
1970s

26
1980s

33
1990s

11
2000s

19
2010s

13
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 33 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the Minnesota average of 1986.

How Cottonwood County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Cottonwood County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cottonwood County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Anoka County	151	55%	40.4%	4.6%	1990
Cottonwood County (this page)	151	74.8%	23.8%	1.3%	1981
Norman County	149	75.2%	21.5%	3.4%	1983
Otter Tail County	149	40.9%	52.3%	6.7%	1980
Carlton County	147	51.7%	39.5%	8.8%	1986
Wabasha County	147	60.5%	39.5%	0%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (151 bridges here).

Randolph County, AR · 151 bridges
Pasco County, FL · 151 bridges
St. Lucie County, FL · 151 bridges
Hall County, GA · 151 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 151 Good 113 Fair 36 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (113)

Sort:

Cottonwood County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cottonwood County's Poor-condition bridges carry 438 vehicle crossings a day

31.1% of Cottonwood County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 94.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cottonwood County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (113)

T 8

CSAH 15

T 40

CR 6

CR 54

T 94

CR 53

CSAH 1

CSAH 7

CR 99

CR 14

T 165

T 50

T 135

CSAH 15

CR 54

CSAH 10

CSAH 15

T 97

T 44

T 97

T 97

T 109

T 124

T 12

T 106

T 129

T 108

T 71

T 93

T 116

T 166

T 97

T 162

T 173

T 113

T 75

T 113

CR 29

CSAH 11

CSAH 11

CSAH 29

CSAH 3

T 207

T 147

CR 54

T 113

T 122

T 176

T 109

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