County profile · official public datasets

Goodhue County, MN

333 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.5% rated Good, 43.5% Fair, 6% Poor.

333
Public bridges: 50.5%
Good condition: 6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

63rd
of 87 on Poor share: 6%
Poor-condition share: 333
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Goodhue County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Goodhue County ranks #63 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6%). Goodhue County, Minnesota contains 333 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.5% are rated “Good,” 43.5% “Fair,” and 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

333

Public highway bridges in Goodhue County

Good condition

50.5%

168 of 333 rated 7-9

Fair condition

43.5%

145 of 333 rated 5-6

Poor condition

20 of 333 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#63 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 333 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.5% (168)

Fair

43.5% (145)

Poor

6% (20)

Goodhue County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,152 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 808 crossings a day against 2,015 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 333 of 333 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.8% of Goodhue County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

106 of the 333 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 50.5% 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 42.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 11 over US 52, built 1960, carries 6,800 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 16,152 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

11
1910s

6
1920s

8
1930s

27
1940s

12
1950s

11
1960s

18
1970s

43
1980s

66
1990s

43
2000s

32
2010s

37
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 66 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 7 years older than the Minnesota average of 1986.

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Goodhue County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Goodhue County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Olmsted County	365	64.1%	34.5%	1.4%	1985
Fillmore County	348	33.3%	63.8%	2.9%	1984
Mower County	343	44.6%	47.2%	8.2%	1988
Ramsey County	341	35.5%	58.1%	6.5%	1984
Goodhue County (this page)	333	50.5%	43.5%	6%	1979
Nobles County	304	70.7%	27.6%	1.6%	1983

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (333 bridges here).

Passaic County, NJ · 333 bridges
Vernon County, WI · 333 bridges
Boone County, MO · 334 bridges
Dodge County, NE · 334 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 333 Good 168 Fair 145 Poor 20

Good-condition bridges (168)

Sort:

Goodhue County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Goodhue County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,152 vehicle crossings a day

31.8% of Goodhue County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 42.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Goodhue 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 (168)

M 51

CR 53

M 51

M 16

CSAH 2

MN 19

T 386

T 136

MN 56

M 24

T 412

T 178

US 61

CSAH 5

M 466

T 172

T 209

T 209

CSAH 24

CSAH 6

CSAH 6

CSAH 6

CSAH 6

T 270

CSAH 1

CSAH 1

T 246

T 171

T 153

T 244

T 835

M 36

CSAH 11

CSAH 24

T 364

CSAH 18

T 75

US 52

T 256

US 52

T 306

CSAH 66

CSAH 7

T 291

T 234

T 363

T 120

CSAH 3

CSAH 12

CSAH 27

Related