Total bridges
112
Public highway bridges in Washington County
County profile · official public datasets
Washington County, MN
112 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.9% rated Good, 52.7% Fair, 4.5% Poor.
- 112
- Public bridges
- 42.9%
- Good condition
- 4.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Washington County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 49th
- of 87 on Poor share
- 4.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 112
- public highway bridges
- 1990
- 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.
Washington County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Washington County ranks #49 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Washington County, Minnesota contains 112 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.9% are rated “Good,” 52.7% “Fair,” and 4.5% “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.
Good condition
42.9%
48 of 112 rated 7-9
Fair condition
52.7%
59 of 112 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.5%
5 of 112 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#49 of 87
Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 112 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 42.9% (48)
Fair 52.7% (59)
Poor 4.5% (5)
Washington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 13,307 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,661 crossings a day against 13,039 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 112 of 112 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
23.2% of Washington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
26 of the 112 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 42.9% 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
CSAH 19 over US 61, built 1958, carries 7,253 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 13,307 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Washington County's bridges were built
112 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
20 bridges
- 1970s 6
1970–1979
6 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
21 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
33 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
17 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 33 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1990) matches the Minnesota average (1986).
How Washington County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Washington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 (this page) | 112 | 42.9% | 52.7% | 4.5% | 1990 |
| Brown County | 108 | 60.2% | 38% | 1.9% | 1982 |
| Mille Lacs County | 107 | 55.1% | 37.4% | 7.5% | 1986 |
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 Washington 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 Washington County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MN (112 bridges here).
- Columbia County, FL · 112 bridges
- Sumter County, FL · 112 bridges
- Houston County, GA · 112 bridges
- Tift County, GA · 112 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1990 here).
- Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
- Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
- Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
- Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (5)
M 62
PoorOver: HARDWOOD CREEK
0.2 MI S OF 180 ST, Washington, MN
Built 1920 Load: 6.3 t ADT: 61
M 232
PoorOver: CLEARWATER CREEK
SW OF JCT TH 61; CSAH 8, Washington, MN
Built 2004 Load: 21.1 t ADT: 525
M 26
PoorOver: VALLEY CREEK
0.2 MI N OF JCT CSAH 21, Washington, MN
Built 1924 Load: 23.9 t ADT: 268
CSAH 5
PoorOver: MZ LTD; BROWNS CREEK
0.2 MI SE OF JCT TH 96, Washington, MN
Built 1967 Load: 29.8 t ADT: 5,200
CSAH 19
PoorOver: US 61
3.1 MI NW OF JCT TH 95, Washington, MN
Built 1958 Load: 33.3 t ADT: 7,253
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.