Total bridges
229
Public highway bridges in Stearns County
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.
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.
When Stearns County's bridges were built
229 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s 12
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s 9
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s 21
1960–1969
21 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
74 bridges
- 1980s 27
1980–1989
27 bridges
- 1990s 21
1990–1999
21 bridges
- 2000s 27
2000–2009
27 bridges
- 2010s 24
2010–2019
24 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (125)
MSAS 113
GoodOver: WATAB RIVER
0.8 MI N OF JCT CR 133, Stearns, MN
Built 2004 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 4,400
CR 176
GoodOver: GETCHELL CREEK
1.2 MI W OF JCT CSAH 11, Stearns, MN
Built 2009 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 350
T 879
GoodOver: N FK CROW RIVER
0.8 MI NW OF JCT CSAH 13, Stearns, MN
Built 2011 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 49
MN 22
GoodOver: STREAM
6.2 MI S OF RICHMOND, Stearns, MN
Built 1999 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 500
CR 121
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.3 MI N OF JCT CR 138, Stearns, MN
Built 2000 Load: 41.3 t ADT: 2,100
M 10
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.2 MI NW OF JCT TH 23, Stearns, MN
Built 1978 Load: 41.5 t ADT: 4,200
CSAH 7
GoodOver: ST AUGUSTA CREEK
0.1 MI N OF JCT CSAH44, Stearns, MN
Built 2013 Load: 41.8 t ADT: 5,000
M 82
GoodOver: TH 23
0.63 MI S OF JCT TH55, Stearns, MN
Built 2012 Load: 42.4 t ADT: 3,200
CR 186
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.7 MI W OF JCT TH 4, Stearns, MN
Built 2010 Load: 42.4 t ADT: 1,050
T 706
GoodOver: STREAM
0.7 MI W OF JCT CR 167, Stearns, MN
Built 2004 Load: 43.6 t ADT: 20
CSAH 17
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.5 MI W JCT CR 185, Stearns, MN
Built 2007 Load: 44.5 t ADT: 2,850
MN 23
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.2 MI W OF TH 22, Stearns, MN
Built 1987 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 8,600
I 94
GoodOver: CSAH 75 EB
6.0 MI NW OF JCT TH 23, Stearns, MN
Built 1976 Load: 47.5 t ADT: 12,750
CSAH 2
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.2 MI S OF JCT TH 23, Stearns, MN
Built 1997 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 4,900
CSAH 4
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.1 MI W OF JCT CR 138, Stearns, MN
Built 2011 Load: 49.0 t ADT: 22,200
T 814
GoodOver: N FK CROW RIVER
0.4 MI N OF JCT CSAH 34, Stearns, MN
Built 1993 Load: 52.1 t ADT: 129
T 1064
GoodOver: ASHLEY CREEK
0.6 MI SE OF N CO LINE, Stearns, MN
Built 1966 Load: 53.1 t ADT: 4
CSAH 19
GoodOver: N FK CROW RIVER
1.7 MI E OF JCT CR196, Stearns, MN
Built 2012 Load: 54.7 t ADT: 175
CSAH 65
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.5 MI W OF JCT CR157, Stearns, MN
Built 2018 Load: 55.1 t ADT: 2,750
MN 23
GoodOver: TH 55
0.25 MI N OF PAYNESVILLE, Stearns, MN
Built 2012 Load: 55.7 t ADT: 6,300
MN 23
GoodOver: TH 55
0.25 MI N OF PAYNESVILLE, Stearns, MN
Built 2012 Load: 55.7 t ADT: 3,150
US 71
GoodOver: Sauk Lake
3.2 MI N OF JCT TH 94, Stearns, MN
Built 2000 Load: 56.8 t ADT: 3,642
CSAH 65
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
1.6 MI NW OF JCT CSAH 13, Stearns, MN
Built 1995 Load: 57.1 t ADT: 690
CR 134
GoodOver: SAUK RIVER
0.1 M N OF JCT CSAH4, Stearns, MN
Built 2011 Load: 58.3 t ADT: 13,600
MN 15
GoodOver: BNSF RR
0.6 MI N OF JCT TH 23, Stearns, MN
Built 1987 Load: 65.3 t ADT: 19,000
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.