County profile · official public datasets

Lyon County, MN

234 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 75.2% rated Good, 21.8% Fair, 3% Poor.

234
Public bridges: 75.2%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 3%
Poor-condition share: 234
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Lyon County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lyon County ranks #37 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Lyon County, Minnesota contains 234 public highway bridges. Roughly 75.2% are rated “Good,” 21.8% “Fair,” and 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.

Total bridges

234

Public highway bridges in Lyon County

Good condition

75.2%

176 of 234 rated 7-9

Fair condition

21.8%

51 of 234 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7 of 234 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#37 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 234 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

75.2% (176)

Fair

21.8% (51)

Poor

3% (7)

Lyon County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,476 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 497 crossings a day against 378 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 234 of 234 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

25.2% of Lyon County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

59 of the 234 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 75.2% 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 79.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MN 23 over REDWOOD RIVER, built 1937, carries 2,763 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 3,476 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

5
1930s

10
1940s

3
1950s

8
1960s

16
1970s

30
1980s

74
1990s

39
2000s

29
2010s

17
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 74 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1983) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Lyon County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lyon County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Winona County	237	43%	52.3%	4.6%	1982
Lyon County (this page)	234	75.2%	21.8%	3%	1983
Stearns County	229	54.6%	42.8%	2.6%	1981
Faribault County	226	50.9%	44.7%	4.4%	1986
Clay County	225	53.8%	40.4%	5.8%	1984
Yellow Medicine County	218	67.4%	29.8%	2.8%	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 Lyon 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 Lyon County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (234 bridges here).

Prince of Wales-Hyder County, AK · 234 bridges
Morgan County, IL · 234 bridges
Jackson County, NC · 234 bridges
Eastland County, TX · 234 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 234 Good 176 Fair 51 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (176)

Sort:

Lyon County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lyon County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,476 vehicle crossings a day

25.2% of Lyon County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 79.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lyon 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 (176)

CR 63

T 183

T 229

T 99

T 155

T 99

T 302

CR 73

CR 73

CR 76

T 33

T 86

T 75

T 142

T 192

CR 67

T 129

CSAH 5

T 119

T 182

T 133

T 185

T 233

T 151

SERVICE RD

M 37

T 129

T 14

T 21

CR 73

CSAH 5

T 75

T 109

T 170

T 9

T 14

T 207

CSAH 24

US 59

CSAH 3

CR 61

CSAH 32

T 41

CR 76

CR 83

CSAH 8

CSAH 3

CSAH 9

CR 83

CSAH 26

Related