County profile · official public datasets

Steele County, MN

134 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.5% rated Good, 41% Fair, 1.5% Poor.

134
Public bridges: 57.5%
Good condition: 1.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Steele County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 13%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.5%
Poor-condition share: 134
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Steele County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Steele County ranks #11 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Steele County, Minnesota contains 134 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.5% are rated “Good,” 41% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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

134

Public highway bridges in Steele County

Good condition

57.5%

77 of 134 rated 7-9

Fair condition

41%

55 of 134 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.5%

2 of 134 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#11 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 134 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57.5% (77)

Fair

41% (55)

Poor

1.5% (2)

Steele County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,080 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,040 crossings a day against 4,504 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 134 of 134 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.1% of Steele County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

43 of the 134 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 57.5% 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 99.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CSAH 45 over TURTLE CREEK, built 1951, carries 4,050 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,080 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

5
1960s

21
1970s

18
1980s

12
1990s

23
2000s

19
2010s

25
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 25 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1987) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Steele County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Steele County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Freeborn County	142	50.7%	46.5%	2.8%	1981
Renville County	141	66%	24.1%	9.9%	1991
Todd County	136	75.7%	21.3%	2.9%	1990
Murray County	134	81.3%	13.4%	5.2%	1986
Steele County (this page)	134	57.5%	41%	1.5%	1987
Scott County	129	65.9%	33.3%	0.8%	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 Steele 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 Steele County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (134 bridges here).

Anchorage County, AK · 134 bridges
Knott County, KY · 134 bridges
Lawrence County, MS · 134 bridges
Jefferson County, MT · 134 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges
Dane County, WI · avg 1987 · 590 bridges

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

All 134 Good 77 Fair 55 Poor 2

All bridges (134)

Sort:

Steele County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Steele County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,080 vehicle crossings a day

32.1% of Steele County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 99.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Steele 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

All bridges (134)

I 35

US 14

CSAH 13

CR 173

US 14

T 123

CR 161

CR 173

CSAH 35

CSAH 2

CSAH 45

CSAH 45

US 14

CSAH 12

I 35

I 35

US 14

I 35

I 35

US 14

US 14

CSAH 35

T 69

I 35

I 35

I 35

I 35

I 35

I 35

CSAH 43

CSAH 43

T 82

CSAH 45

T 118

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