County profile · official public datasets

Kandiyohi County, MN

94 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.9% rated Good, 43.6% Fair, 7.4% Poor.

94
Public bridges: 48.9%
Good condition: 7.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Kandiyohi 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.

72nd
of 87 on Poor share: 7.4%
Poor-condition share: 94
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Kandiyohi County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kandiyohi County ranks #72 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.4%). Kandiyohi County, Minnesota contains 94 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.9% are rated “Good,” 43.6% “Fair,” and 7.4% “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 Kandiyohi County

Good condition

48.9%

46 of 94 rated 7-9

Fair condition

43.6%

41 of 94 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.4%

7 of 94 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#72 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 94 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

48.9% (46)

Fair

43.6% (41)

Poor

7.4% (7)

Kandiyohi County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,704 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 386 crossings a day against 2,309 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 94 of 94 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

33% of Kandiyohi County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

31 of the 94 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 48.9% 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 89.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 9 over BNSF RR, built 1965, carries 2,432 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,704 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1930s

4
1940s

4
1950s

4
1960s

18
1970s

24
1980s

8
1990s

9
2000s

9
2010s

9
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 24 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 6 years older than the Minnesota average of 1986.

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Kandiyohi County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is 8 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kandiyohi County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Beltrami County	101	63.4%	33.7%	3%	1989
Koochiching County	98	54.1%	38.8%	7.1%	1987
Swift County	97	75.3%	23.7%	1%	1993
Aitkin County	96	55.2%	36.5%	8.3%	1985
Kandiyohi County (this page)	94	48.9%	43.6%	7.4%	1980
Lake County	90	51.1%	36.7%	12.2%	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 Kandiyohi 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 Kandiyohi County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (94 bridges here).

Yukon-Koyukuk County, AK · 94 bridges
Lee County, AR · 94 bridges
Huerfano County, CO · 94 bridges
Henry County, KY · 94 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 94 Good 46 Fair 41 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (46)

Sort:

Kandiyohi County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kandiyohi County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,704 vehicle crossings a day

33% of Kandiyohi County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 89.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kandiyohi 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 (46)

T 153

UNDETERMINED RD

US 71

T 829

US 71

T 63

M 20

CR 134

CSAH 8

CSAH 16

MN 9

US 71

T 119

US 12

T 785

T 246

T 163

T 2

T 60

MN 40

T 44

US 71

CSAH 9

US 12

T 121

CSAH 19

CSAH 2

CSAH 7

CSAH 24

CR 74

CSAH 4

T 8

CSAH 7

CSAH 40

CSAH 5

MN 23

MN 23

CSAH 2

MN 55

US 71

CSAH 4

MN 23

T 358

MN 23

CSAH 5

US 12

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