County profile · official public datasets

Stearns County, MN

229 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.6% rated Good, 42.8% Fair, 2.6% Poor.

229
Public bridges: 54.6%
Good condition: 2.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Stearns County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 31%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.6%
Poor-condition share: 229
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Stearns County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stearns County ranks #27 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Stearns County, Minnesota contains 229 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.6% are rated “Good,” 42.8% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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

229

Public highway bridges in Stearns County

Good condition

54.6%

125 of 229 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42.8%

98 of 229 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.6%

6 of 229 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 229 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.6% (125)

Fair

42.8% (98)

Poor

2.6% (6)

Stearns County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,960 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,493 crossings a day against 3,074 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 229 of 229 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.6% of Stearns County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

61 of the 229 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 54.6% 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 95.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I 94 over SAUK RIVER, built 1965, carries 14,250 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 14,960 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

12
1940s

6
1950s

9
1960s

21
1970s

74
1980s

27
1990s

21
2000s

27
2010s

24
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 74 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 32.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 5 years older than the Minnesota average of 1986.

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Stearns County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Stearns County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Winona County	237	43%	52.3%	4.6%	1982
Lyon County	234	75.2%	21.8%	3%	1983
Stearns County (this page)	229	54.6%	42.8%	2.6%	1981
Faribault County	226	50.9%	44.7%	4.4%	1986
Clay County	225	53.8%	40.4%	5.8%	1984
Yellow Medicine County	218	67.4%	29.8%	2.8%	1984

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (229 bridges here).

Walton County, FL · 229 bridges
Aroostook County, ME · 229 bridges
Itawamba County, MS · 229 bridges
Rockingham County, NC · 229 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 229 Good 125 Fair 98 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (125)

Sort:

Stearns County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Stearns County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,960 vehicle crossings a day

26.6% of Stearns County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 95.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Stearns 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 (125)

CR 145

T 172

T 828

CSAH 1

CSAH 71

I 94

M 43

T 244

I 94

M 58

CR 186

CSAH 10

CR 182

CR 172

CR 164

CSAH 72

T 774

MN 28

CSAH 6

M 94

CR 157

CR 156

T 932

CSAH 1

MN 23

CSAH 120

MN 23

MN 55

CSAH 31

I 94

MN 23

MN 23

MN 15

MN 4

CSAH 13

CSAH 23

T 51

CSAH 10

CSAH 16

CSAH 1

CSAH 4

CSAH 8

CSAH 17

CR 201

CSAH 17

CSAH 30

T 440

T 1008

T 620

T 834

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