Total bridges
121
Public highway bridges in Traverse County
County profile · official public datasets
Traverse County, MN
121 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 65.3% rated Good, 33.1% Fair, 1.7% Poor.
- 121
- Public bridges
- 65.3%
- Good condition
- 1.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Traverse County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 17%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 121
- public highway bridges
- 1985
- 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.
Traverse County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Traverse County ranks #15 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.7%). Traverse County, Minnesota contains 121 public highway bridges. Roughly 65.3% are rated “Good,” 33.1% “Fair,” and 1.7% “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
65.3%
79 of 121 rated 7-9
Fair condition
33.1%
40 of 121 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.7%
2 of 121 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#15 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 121 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 65.3% (79)
Fair 33.1% (40)
Poor 1.7% (2)
Traverse County's Poor-condition bridges carry 22 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 11 crossings a day against 100 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 121 of 121 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
24.8% of Traverse County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
30 of the 121 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 65.3% 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 54.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
T 104 over JUD DITCH # 14, built 1955, carries 12 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 22 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Traverse County's bridges were built
121 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 9
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
29 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
17 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
15 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
23 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1985) matches the Minnesota average (1986).
How Traverse County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Traverse County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.7% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1990 is 5 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott County | 129 | 65.9% | 33.3% | 0.8% | 1993 |
| Traverse County (this page) | 121 | 65.3% | 33.1% | 1.7% | 1985 |
| Benton County | 117 | 54.7% | 36.8% | 8.5% | 1985 |
| Chippewa County | 116 | 49.1% | 44% | 6.9% | 1989 |
| Carver County | 115 | 57.4% | 40% | 2.6% | 1995 |
| Washington County | 112 | 42.9% | 52.7% | 4.5% | 1990 |
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 Traverse 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 Traverse County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (121 bridges here).
- Sutter County, CA · 121 bridges
- Gadsden County, FL · 121 bridges
- Emanuel County, GA · 121 bridges
- Union County, LA · 121 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1985 here).
- Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
- Lancaster County, NE · avg 1985 · 661 bridges
- Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
- Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.