County profile · official public datasets

Pennington County, MN

49 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 75.5% rated Good, 22.4% Fair, 2% Poor.

49
Public bridges: 75.5%
Good condition: 2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 22%
lowest Poor share in state: 2%
Poor-condition share: 49
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.

Pennington County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pennington County ranks #19 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Pennington County, Minnesota contains 49 public highway bridges. Roughly 75.5% are rated “Good,” 22.4% “Fair,” and 2% “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 Pennington County

Good condition

75.5%

37 of 49 rated 7-9

Fair condition

22.4%

11 of 49 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1 of 49 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#19 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 49 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

75.5% (37)

Fair

22.4% (11)

Poor

2% (1)

Pennington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 35 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 35 crossings a day against 421 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 49 of 49 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.5% of Pennington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

13 of the 49 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 75.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 52 over BLACK RIVER, built 1965, carries 35 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 35 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

1
1950s

4
1960s

6
1970s

5
1980s

5
1990s

19
2000s

5
2010s

2
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 19 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 38.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1985) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Pennington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1989 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pennington County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Becker County	53	79.2%	18.9%	1.9%	1995
Clearwater County	50	50%	50%	0%	1981
Pennington County (this page)	49	75.5%	22.4%	2%	1985
Pope County	47	87.2%	10.6%	2.1%	1987
Sherburne County	47	57.4%	40.4%	2.1%	1992
Hubbard County	45	55.6%	42.2%	2.2%	1990

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (49 bridges here).

Mono County, CA · 49 bridges
Yuma County, CO · 49 bridges
Calhoun County, FL · 49 bridges
Crawford County, GA · 49 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 49 Good 37 Fair 11 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (37)

Sort:

Pennington County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pennington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 35 vehicle crossings a day

26.5% of Pennington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pennington 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 (37)

CSAH 24

T 235

CR 55

CSAH 3

CSAH 3

CSAH 3

CR 58

T 103

CR 55

CR 90

CR 88

CSAH 26

T 112

T 187

CR 63

CR 57

CSAH 8

MSAS 115

CSAH 31

CR 54

CSAH 22

CR 97

CR 57

CR 85

CR 63

CR 96

T 144

T 151

CR 82

CSAH 18

CSAH 20

CSAH 21

CR 77

CSAH 27

CR 84

T 122

T 124

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