Total bridges
170
Public highway bridges in Itasca County
County profile · official public datasets
Itasca County, MN
170 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50% rated Good, 44.7% Fair, 5.3% Poor.
- 170
- Public bridges
- 50%
- Good condition
- 5.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Itasca County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 59th
- of 87 on Poor share
- 5.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 170
- public highway bridges
- 1985
- 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.
Itasca County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Itasca County ranks #59 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.3%). Itasca County, Minnesota contains 170 public highway bridges. Roughly 50% are rated “Good,” 44.7% “Fair,” and 5.3% “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.
Good condition
50%
85 of 170 rated 7-9
Fair condition
44.7%
76 of 170 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5.3%
9 of 170 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#59 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 170 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 50% (85)
Fair 44.7% (76)
Poor 5.3% (9)
Itasca County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,702 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 411 crossings a day against 847 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 170 of 170 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
30.6% of Itasca County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
52 of the 170 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% 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 17 over POKEGAMA LAKE, built 1955, carries 1,560 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 3,702 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Itasca County's bridges were built
170 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 4
1910–1919
4 bridges
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 9
1930–1939
9 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
12 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
28 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
18 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
28 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
28 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1985) matches the Minnesota average (1986).
How Itasca County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Itasca County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.3% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac qui Parle County | 174 | 73% | 19.5% | 7.5% | 1986 |
| Houston County | 172 | 64% | 33.7% | 2.3% | 1990 |
| Pine County | 171 | 63.2% | 32.2% | 4.7% | 1987 |
| Itasca County (this page) | 170 | 50% | 44.7% | 5.3% | 1985 |
| Watonwan County | 167 | 69.5% | 29.9% | 0.6% | 1978 |
| Morrison County | 164 | 62.2% | 33.5% | 4.3% | 1988 |
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 Itasca 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 Itasca County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (170 bridges here).
- Rush County, KS · 170 bridges
- Montgomery County, MS · 170 bridges
- Clarendon County, SC · 170 bridges
- Brown County, SD · 170 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1985 here).
- Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
- Lancaster County, NE · avg 1985 · 661 bridges
- Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
- Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (9)
M 8
PoorOver: WELCOME CREEK
0.1 MI W OF CO LINE, Itasca, MN
Built 1919 Load: 3.3 t ADT: 10
UT 2233
PoorOver: SWAN RIVER
0.4 MI S OF JCT CSAH 10, Itasca, MN
Built 1917 Load: 4.9 t ADT: 25
CR 439
PoorOver: SPLIT HAND CREEK
0.1 MI N OF JCT CSAH 68, Itasca, MN
Built 1950 Load: 21.6 t ADT: 40
CSAH 70
PoorOver: SWAN RIVER
0.9 MI E OF JCT CSAH 10, Itasca, MN
Built 1953 Load: 25.1 t ADT: 377
CSAH 40
PoorOver: BIG FORK RIVER
1.0 MI N OF JCT TH 1, Itasca, MN
Built 1980 Load: 26.1 t ADT: 110
CSAH 68
PoorOver: SPLIT HAND CREEK
0.4 MI W OF JCT CSAH 3, Itasca, MN
Built 1950 Load: 27.1 t ADT: 60
CSAH 61
PoorOver: PRAIRIE RIVER
1.7 MI E OF JCT TH 38, Itasca, MN
Built 1973 Load: 28.4 t ADT: 1,000
MN 6
PoorOver: BIG FORK RIVER
32.8 MI N OF DEER RIVER, Itasca, MN
Built 1965 Load: 34.6 t ADT: 520
CSAH 17
PoorOver: POKEGAMA LAKE
1.7 MI W OF JCT US 169, Itasca, MN
Built 1955 Load: 53.5 t ADT: 1,560
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.