Total bridges
185
Public highway bridges in Pipestone County
County profile · official public datasets
Pipestone County, MN
185 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 64.9% rated Good, 31.9% Fair, 3.2% Poor.
- 185
- Public bridges
- 64.9%
- Good condition
- 3.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Pipestone County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 44%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 185
- public highway bridges
- 1998
- 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.
Pipestone County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pipestone County ranks #38 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.2%). Pipestone County, Minnesota contains 185 public highway bridges. Roughly 64.9% are rated “Good,” 31.9% “Fair,” and 3.2% “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.
Good condition
64.9%
120 of 185 rated 7-9
Fair condition
31.9%
59 of 185 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.2%
6 of 185 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#38 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 185 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 64.9% (120)
Fair 31.9% (59)
Poor 3.2% (6)
Pipestone County's Poor-condition bridges carry 675 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 113 crossings a day against 307 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 185 of 185 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
13% of Pipestone County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
24 of the 185 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 64.9% 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 70.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CSAH 22 over MAIN DITCH, built 1970, carries 475 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 675 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Pipestone County's bridges were built
185 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 10
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s 4
1960–1969
4 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s 6
1980–1989
6 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
40 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
37 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
48 bridges
- 2020s
2020–2029
24 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1998, 12 years newer than the Minnesota average of 1986.
How Pipestone County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Pipestone County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1998 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 13 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilkin County | 196 | 80.6% | 15.3% | 4.1% | 1989 |
| Blue Earth County | 193 | 49.7% | 43% | 7.3% | 1982 |
| Pipestone County (this page) | 185 | 64.9% | 31.9% | 3.2% | 1998 |
| Jackson County | 182 | 67% | 30.2% | 2.7% | 1986 |
| Dodge County | 177 | 46.9% | 44.1% | 9% | 1983 |
| Lac qui Parle County | 174 | 73% | 19.5% | 7.5% | 1986 |
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 Pipestone 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 Pipestone County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (185 bridges here).
- Chambers County, AL · 185 bridges
- Maui County, HI · 185 bridges
- Lawrence County, IL · 185 bridges
- Saline County, IL · 185 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1998 here).
- Collin County, TX · avg 1998 · 1,127 bridges
- Orange County, FL · avg 1998 · 885 bridges
- Fort Bend County, TX · avg 1998 · 795 bridges
- Montgomery County, TX · avg 1998 · 710 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (59)
T 124
FairOver: FLANDREAU CREEK
0.1 MI S OF JCT TWP 273, Pipestone, MN
Built 1997 Load: 42.8 t ADT: 20
MN 23
FairOver: SPLIT ROCK CREEK
0.5 MI SW OF IHLEN, Pipestone, MN
Built 1937 Load: 43.4 t ADT: 3,278
CSAH 9
FairOver: CHANARAMBIE CREEK
0.4 MI W OF JCT CSAH 18, Pipestone, MN
Built 2005 Load: 43.4 t ADT: 1,444
CSAH 30
FairOver: MAIN DITCH
0.4 MI N OF JCT CSAH 22, Pipestone, MN
Built 1990 Load: 45.1 t ADT: 984
T 12
FairOver: TRIB CHANARAMBIE CR
0.3 MI N OF JCT CSAH 9, Pipestone, MN
Built 1998 Load: 48.3 t ADT: 24
CSAH 13
FairOver: PIPESTONE CREEK
0.5 MI S OF JCT TH 30, Pipestone, MN
Built 1993 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 308
T 92
FairOver: POPLAR CREEK
0.9 MI S OF JCT CSAH 9, Pipestone, MN
Built 2007 Load: 50.2 t ADT: 49
T 11
FairOver: ROCK RIVER
1.2 MI W OF JCT CSAH 17, Pipestone, MN
Built 1997 Load: 52.2 t ADT: 33
CSAH 5
FairOver: PIPESTONE CREEK
1.4 MI E OF JCT CSAH 13, Pipestone, MN
Built 1995 Load: 60.4 t ADT: 90
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.