County profile · official public datasets

Nobles County, MN

304 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 70.7% rated Good, 27.6% Fair, 1.6% Poor.

304
Public bridges: 70.7%
Good condition: 1.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Nobles County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.6%
Poor-condition share: 304
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.

Nobles County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Nobles County ranks #14 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.6%). Nobles County, Minnesota contains 304 public highway bridges. Roughly 70.7% are rated “Good,” 27.6% “Fair,” and 1.6% “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

304

Public highway bridges in Nobles County

Good condition

70.7%

215 of 304 rated 7-9

Fair condition

27.6%

84 of 304 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.6%

5 of 304 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#14 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 304 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

70.7% (215)

Fair

27.6% (84)

Poor

1.6% (5)

Nobles County's Poor-condition bridges carry 645 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 129 crossings a day against 403 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 304 of 304 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.3% of Nobles County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

80 of the 304 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 70.7% 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 51.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 9 over STREAM, built 1950, carries 330 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 645 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

10
1930s

10
1940s

9
1950s

9
1960s

36
1970s

43
1980s

72
1990s

41
2000s

32
2010s

27
2020s

14

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 72 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.7% 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 Nobles County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Nobles County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Nobles County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Mower County	343	44.6%	47.2%	8.2%	1988
Ramsey County	341	35.5%	58.1%	6.5%	1984
Goodhue County	333	50.5%	43.5%	6%	1979
Nobles County (this page)	304	70.7%	27.6%	1.6%	1983
Polk County	268	63.1%	33.6%	3.4%	1989
Rock County	265	80%	17.7%	2.3%	1991

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (304 bridges here).

Coles County, IL · 304 bridges
Knox County, IL · 304 bridges
Marshall County, IA · 304 bridges
Osage County, KS · 304 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 304 Good 215 Fair 84 Poor 5

Good-condition bridges (215)

Sort:

Nobles County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Nobles County's Poor-condition bridges carry 645 vehicle crossings a day

26.3% of Nobles County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 51.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Nobles 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 (215)

T 181

CSAH 14

CR 68

CR 70

T 7

T 8

T 120

T 120

T 119

T 176

T 9

T 114

CR 56

T 152

T 9

T 13

CSAH 16

I 90

T 159

T 179

CSAH 6

T 120

CSAH 15

CSAH 16

CR 70

CSAH 13

T 139

T 219

T 13

T 348

T 13

CR 60

CSAH 13

MSAS 115

CSAH 20

CSAH 15

CSAH 15

T 110

CSAH 20

CSAH 4

CR 57

US 59

MN 91

MN 91

T 123

MSAS 102

T 78

T 77

T 96

MN 60

Related