Total bridges
77
Public highway bridges in Wadena County
County profile · official public datasets
Wadena County, MN
77 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 79.2% rated Good, 16.9% Fair, 3.9% Poor.
- 77
- Public bridges
- 79.2%
- Good condition
- 3.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Wadena County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 49%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 77
- public highway bridges
- 1993
- 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.
Wadena County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wadena County ranks #43 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Wadena County, Minnesota contains 77 public highway bridges. Roughly 79.2% are rated “Good,” 16.9% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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
79.2%
61 of 77 rated 7-9
Fair condition
16.9%
13 of 77 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.9%
3 of 77 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#43 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 77 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 79.2% (61)
Fair 16.9% (13)
Poor 3.9% (3)
Wadena County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,175 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 392 crossings a day against 521 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 77 of 77 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
13% of Wadena County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
10 of the 77 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 79.2% 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 54.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CSAH 12 over CROW WING RIVER, built 1958, carries 643 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,175 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Wadena County's bridges were built
77 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1950s 2
1950–1959
2 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s 5
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
28 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
12 bridges
- 2010s 10
2010–2019
10 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 36.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1993, 7 years newer than the Minnesota average of 1986.
How Wadena County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Wadena County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1993 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is 6 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waseca County | 83 | 28.9% | 62.7% | 8.4% | 1983 |
| Kanabec County | 82 | 58.5% | 37.8% | 3.7% | 1985 |
| McLeod County | 77 | 50.6% | 45.5% | 3.9% | 1990 |
| Wadena County (this page) | 77 | 79.2% | 16.9% | 3.9% | 1993 |
| Wright County | 74 | 54.1% | 43.2% | 2.7% | 1988 |
| Crow Wing County | 73 | 42.5% | 50.7% | 6.8% | 1987 |
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 Wadena 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 Wadena County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (77 bridges here).
- Clear Creek County, CO · 77 bridges
- Liberty County, FL · 77 bridges
- Appling County, GA · 77 bridges
- Baldwin County, GA · 77 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1993 here).
- Salt Lake County, UT · avg 1993 · 659 bridges
- Marshall County, MS · avg 1993 · 255 bridges
- Rowan County, NC · avg 1993 · 245 bridges
- Cabarrus County, NC · avg 1993 · 236 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (13)
CSAH 23
FairOver: LEAF RIVER
0.6 MI S OF JCT CSAH7, Wadena, MN
Built 1970 Load: 16.8 t ADT: 1,436
CSAH 9
FairOver: CROW WING RIVER
0.1 MI W OF JCT CSAH 7, Wadena, MN
Built 1969 Load: 18.5 t ADT: 312
CSAH 18
FairOver: CROW WING RIVER
0.1 MI E OF JCT CSAH25, Wadena, MN
Built 1969 Load: 18.8 t ADT: 227
CSAH 7
FairOver: CROW WING RIVER
0.3 MI W OF JCT CSAH 30, Wadena, MN
Built 1967 Load: 26.5 t ADT: 276
CR 106
FairOver: SHELL RIVER
1.3 MI N OF JCT CSAH 18, Wadena, MN
Built 1984 Load: 31.7 t ADT: 45
T 179
FairOver: PARTRIDGE RIVER
0.5 MI N OF JCT CSAH 2, Wadena, MN
Built 1990 Load: 33.3 t ADT: 165
US 10
FairOver: PARTRIDGE RIVER
7.4 MI NW OF JCT TH 210, Wadena, MN
Built 1991 Load: 34.9 t ADT: 3,820
US 10
FairOver: PARTIDGE RIVER
1.4 MI NW OF JCT TH 210, Wadena, MN
Built 1991 Load: 35.3 t ADT: 3,820
CSAH 29
FairOver: LEAF RIVER
0.1 MI N OF JCT CSAH 5, Wadena, MN
Built 1970 Load: 35.3 t ADT: 137
CR 156
FairOver: BLUEBERRY RIVER
1.2 MI N OF JCT CSAH 16, Wadena, MN
Built 1983 Load: 35.9 t ADT: 65
T 416
FairOver: WING RIVER
0.3 MI N OF JCT TH 10, Wadena, MN
Built 1988 Load: 37.0 t ADT: 55
CR 164
FairOver: RED EYE RIVER
3.8 MI E OF JCT CSAH 23, Wadena, MN
Built 1999 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 25
US 71
FairOver: BLUEBERRY RIVER
0.5 MI N OF MENAHGA, Wadena, MN
Built 1959 Load: 52.7 t ADT: 5,457
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.