County profile · official public datasets

Kanabec County, MN

82 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.5% rated Good, 37.8% Fair, 3.7% Poor.

82
Public bridges: 58.5%
Good condition: 3.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Kanabec County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 47%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.7%
Poor-condition share: 82
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.

Kanabec County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kanabec County ranks #41 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.7%). Kanabec County, Minnesota contains 82 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.5% are rated “Good,” 37.8% “Fair,” and 3.7% “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 Kanabec County

Good condition

58.5%

48 of 82 rated 7-9

Fair condition

37.8%

31 of 82 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.7%

3 of 82 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#41 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 82 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

58.5% (48)

Fair

37.8% (31)

Poor

3.7% (3)

Kanabec County's Poor-condition bridges carry 545 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 182 crossings a day against 1,065 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 82 of 82 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

31.7% of Kanabec County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

26 of the 82 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 58.5% 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 69.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 12 over GROUNDHOUSE RIVER, built 1971, carries 380 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 545 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

4
1960s

9
1970s

14
1980s

12
1990s

13
2000s

20
2010s

3
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1985) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Kanabec County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kanabec County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lake County	90	51.1%	36.7%	12.2%	1984
Cass County	85	47.1%	48.2%	4.7%	1985
Waseca County	83	28.9%	62.7%	8.4%	1983
Kanabec County (this page)	82	58.5%	37.8%	3.7%	1985
McLeod County	77	50.6%	45.5%	3.9%	1990
Wadena County	77	79.2%	16.9%	3.9%	1993

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (82 bridges here).

Murray County, GA · 82 bridges
Gallatin County, IL · 82 bridges
Thomas County, KS · 82 bridges
Nicholas County, KY · 82 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.

All 82 Good 48 Fair 31 Poor 3

All bridges (82)

Sort:

Kanabec County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kanabec County's Poor-condition bridges carry 545 vehicle crossings a day

31.7% of Kanabec County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 69.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kanabec 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

All bridges (82)

CSAH 8

CSAH 13

MN 65

MN 65

CSAH 5

T 159

CR 50

T 197

T 54

CR 51

T 129

CR 70

CR 68

CR 67

CR 49

CSAH 11

T 169

T 1

MN 65

T 164

MN 107

T 512

MN 47

T 511

MN 23

CSAH 26

MN 70

CR 57

CR 60

CR 68

CSAH 12

CSAH 17

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