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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Wadena County

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.

1950s

2
1960s

5
1970s

5
1980s

14
1990s

28
2000s

12
2010s

10
2020s

1

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.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wadena County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
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.

All 77 Good 61 Fair 13 Poor 3

Good-condition bridges (61)

Sort:

Wadena County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wadena County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,175 vehicle crossings a day

13% of Wadena County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 54.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wadena 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 (61)

T 95

T 79

CSAH 2

CSAH 12

CSAH 4

CSAH 30

T 38

CSAH 23

CSAH 26

T 1667

SERVICE RD

T 149

US 10

T 144

CSAH 23

CSAH 26

T 100

CSAH 30

CSAH 29

CSAH 16

CSAH 23

CR 119

CR 164

CR 118

CR 130

T 190

CR 154

CSAH 12

CSAH 8

CSAH 23

T 95

T 207

T 1667

T 45

T 432

T 267

T 237

T 72

CSAH 18

M 5

T 45

CSAH 12

CR 104

CSAH 12

CSAH 21

CSAH 2

US 71

CSAH 26

T 221

CSAH 26

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