County profile · official public datasets

Lac qui Parle County, MN

174 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 73% rated Good, 19.5% Fair, 7.5% Poor.

174
Public bridges: 73%
Good condition: 7.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lac qui Parle County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

73rd
of 87 on Poor share: 7.5%
Poor-condition share: 174
public highway bridges: 1986
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.

Lac qui Parle County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lac qui Parle County ranks #73 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.5%). Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota contains 174 public highway bridges. Roughly 73% are rated “Good,” 19.5% “Fair,” and 7.5% “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

174

Public highway bridges in Lac qui Parle County

Good condition

73%

127 of 174 rated 7-9

Fair condition

19.5%

34 of 174 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.5%

13 of 174 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#73 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 174 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

73% (127)

Fair

19.5% (34)

Poor

7.5% (13)

Lac qui Parle County's Poor-condition bridges carry 576 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 44 crossings a day against 260 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 174 of 174 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

24.1% of Lac qui Parle County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

42 of the 174 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 73% 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 18.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 38 over CO DITCH # 3, built 1974, carries 105 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 13-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 576 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

2
1920s

1
1930s

6
1940s

1
1950s

3
1960s

17
1970s

29
1980s

31
1990s

31
2000s

29
2010s

18
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1986) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

How Lac qui Parle County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Lac qui Parle County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 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 Lac qui Parle County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Dodge County	177	46.9%	44.1%	9%	1983
Lac qui Parle County (this page)	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	170	50%	44.7%	5.3%	1985
Watonwan County	167	69.5%	29.9%	0.6%	1978

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (174 bridges here).

Hempstead County, AR · 174 bridges
Eagle County, CO · 174 bridges
Washington County, IN · 174 bridges
Sussex County, NJ · 174 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1986 here).

El Paso County, TX · avg 1986 · 783 bridges
Caddo County, LA · avg 1986 · 682 bridges
Weld County, CO · avg 1986 · 614 bridges
Polk County, IA · avg 1986 · 545 bridges

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

All 174 Good 127 Fair 34 Poor 13

Good-condition bridges (127)

Sort:

Lac qui Parle County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lac qui Parle County's Poor-condition bridges carry 576 vehicle crossings a day

24.1% of Lac qui Parle County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 18.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lac qui Parle 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 (127)

T 232

CSAH 2

T 156

T 29

T 155

T 198

CSAH 30

T 29

T 183

T 153

T 184

T 205

T 52

T 153

T 155

T 272

SERVICE RD

T 138

T 156

CR 50

T 40

T 41

T 199

CSAH 18

CSAH 7

CSAH 21

CSAH 12

CSAH 7

CSAH 20

T 165

CSAH 9

CSAH 9

CSAH 9

T 64

T 309

T 209

T 84

T 84

T 150

T 155

T 155

T 130

CSAH 13

CSAH 7

CSAH 31

T 182

T 213

T 197

T 48

T 204

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