Total bridges
142
Public highway bridges in Rice County
County profile · official public datasets
Rice County, MN
142 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40.8% rated Good, 56.3% Fair, 2.8% Poor.
- 142
- Public bridges
- 40.8%
- Good condition
- 2.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Rice County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 37%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 142
- 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.
Rice County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rice County ranks #32 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Rice County, Minnesota contains 142 public highway bridges. Roughly 40.8% are rated “Good,” 56.3% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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
40.8%
58 of 142 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56.3%
80 of 142 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.8%
4 of 142 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#32 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 142 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40.8% (58)
Fair 56.3% (80)
Poor 2.8% (4)
Rice County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,085 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,521 crossings a day against 1,341 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 142 of 142 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
35.9% of Rice County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
51 of the 142 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 40.8% 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 71.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
MN 19 over CANNON RIVER, built 1973, carries 7,179 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 10,085 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Rice County's bridges were built
142 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 10
1950–1959
10 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
19 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s 9
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 11
1990–1999
11 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
36 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
18 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1986) matches the Minnesota average (1986).
How Rice County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Rice County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 against a peer-group mean of 1986 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton County | 147 | 51.7% | 39.5% | 8.8% | 1986 |
| Wabasha County | 147 | 60.5% | 39.5% | 0% | 1985 |
| Freeborn County | 142 | 50.7% | 46.5% | 2.8% | 1981 |
| Roseau County | 142 | 69.7% | 27.5% | 2.8% | 1989 |
| Rice County (this page) | 142 | 40.8% | 56.3% | 2.8% | 1986 |
| Renville County | 141 | 66% | 24.1% | 9.9% | 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 Rice 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 Rice County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (142 bridges here).
- Monroe County, AL · 142 bridges
- Henderson County, IL · 142 bridges
- Graham County, KS · 142 bridges
- Kenton County, KY · 142 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.
Poor-condition bridges (4)
CSAH 78
PoorOver: HEATH CREEK
1.4 MI SW OF JCT TH 19, Rice, MN
Built 1955 Load: 26.1 t ADT: 2,850
T 125
PoorOver: STREAM
0.1 MI W OF JCT TH 246, Rice, MN
Built 1950 Load: 26.1 t ADT: 36
T 812
PoorOver: PRAIRIE CREEK
0.2 MI E OF JCT TH 246, Rice, MN
Built 1962 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 20
MN 19
PoorOver: CANNON RIVER
0.1 MI E OF N JCT TH 3, Rice, MN
Built 1973 Load: 37.1 t ADT: 7,179
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.