County profile · official public datasets

Sibley County, MN

102 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 61.8% rated Good, 37.3% Fair, 1% Poor.

102
Public bridges: 61.8%
Good condition: 1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Sibley County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 7%
lowest Poor share in state: 1%
Poor-condition share: 102
public highway bridges: 1994
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.

Sibley County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sibley County ranks #6 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1%). Sibley County, Minnesota contains 102 public highway bridges. Roughly 61.8% are rated “Good,” 37.3% “Fair,” and 1% “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

102

Public highway bridges in Sibley County

Good condition

61.8%

63 of 102 rated 7-9

Fair condition

37.3%

38 of 102 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1 of 102 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#6 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 102 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

61.8% (63)

Fair

37.3% (38)

Poor

1% (1)

Sibley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 64 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 64 crossings a day against 522 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 102 of 102 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

7.8% of Sibley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

8 of the 102 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 61.8% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

T 71 over HIGH ISLAND CREEK, built 1940, carries 64 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 64 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

1
1960s

2
1970s

14
1980s

14
1990s

23
2000s

20
2010s

21
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1994, 8 years newer than the Minnesota average of 1986.

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Sibley County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1994 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Sibley County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Mille Lacs County	107	55.1%	37.4%	7.5%	1986
Lincoln County	106	54.7%	38.7%	6.6%	1981
Sibley County (this page)	102	61.8%	37.3%	1%	1994
Beltrami County	101	63.4%	33.7%	3%	1989
Koochiching County	98	54.1%	38.8%	7.1%	1987
Swift County	97	75.3%	23.7%	1%	1993

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (102 bridges here).

La Plata County, CO · 102 bridges
Clarke County, GA · 102 bridges
Pulaski County, IN · 102 bridges
Clark County, KS · 102 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1994 here).

Denton County, TX · avg 1994 · 991 bridges
St. Charles County, MO · avg 1994 · 417 bridges
Rock County, WI · avg 1994 · 304 bridges
Pitt County, NC · avg 1994 · 228 bridges

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

All 102 Good 63 Fair 38 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (63)

Sort:

Sibley County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Sibley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 64 vehicle crossings a day

7.8% of Sibley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Sibley 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 (63)

MN 15

MN 22

T 44

MN 15

T 194

T 68

T 8

T 286

CSAH 22

CSAH 8

CSAH 8

CR 57

CSAH 25

CR 63

CR 63

CSAH 9

T 119

CSAH 8

CSAH 6

CR 65

T 234

T 107

MN 5

CSAH 17

T 137

T 71

CSAH 9

CSAH 23

CR 62

T 54

T 60

T 284

T 53

CSAH 13

T 204

T 152

CSAH 4

T 24

CSAH 22

T 58

T 284

CSAH 8

CR 53

CR 53

CSAH 8

CR 56

CSAH 6

T 435

T 133

MN 22

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