County profile · official public datasets

Watonwan County, MN

167 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 69.5% rated Good, 29.9% Fair, 0.6% Poor.

167
Public bridges: 69.5%
Good condition: 0.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Watonwan County pairs a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 5%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.6%
Poor-condition share: 167
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Watonwan County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Watonwan County ranks #4 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.6%). Watonwan County, Minnesota contains 167 public highway bridges. Roughly 69.5% are rated “Good,” 29.9% “Fair,” and 0.6% “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

167

Public highway bridges in Watonwan County

Good condition

69.5%

116 of 167 rated 7-9

Fair condition

29.9%

50 of 167 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.6%

1 of 167 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#4 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 167 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

69.5% (116)

Fair

29.9% (50)

Poor

0.6% (1)

Watonwan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1 crossings a day against 323 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 167 of 167 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.3% of Watonwan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

44 of the 167 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 69.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SERVICE RD over JUD DITCH # 7, built 1970, carries 1 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

10
1930s

9
1940s

5
1950s

4
1960s

5
1970s

57
1980s

24
1990s

23
2000s

13
2010s

15
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 57 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 34.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1978, 8 years older than the Minnesota average of 1986.

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Watonwan County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 7 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Watonwan County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Houston County	172	64%	33.7%	2.3%	1990
Pine County	171	63.2%	32.2%	4.7%	1987
Itasca County	170	50%	44.7%	5.3%	1985
Watonwan County (this page)	167	69.5%	29.9%	0.6%	1978
Morrison County	164	62.2%	33.5%	4.3%	1988
Martin County	162	56.2%	34.6%	9.3%	1975

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 Watonwan 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 Watonwan County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (167 bridges here).

Cherokee County, AL · 167 bridges
Garfield County, CO · 167 bridges
Mitchell County, IA · 167 bridges
Ness County, KS · 167 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 167 Good 116 Fair 50 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (116)

Sort:

Watonwan County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Watonwan County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1 vehicle crossings a day

26.3% of Watonwan County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Watonwan 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 (116)

CSAH 13

CR 101

CR 124

CSAH 3

CSAH 10

CSAH 9

CSAH 18

CR 116

MN 60

T 60

CSAH 16

T 83

T 116

MN 60

MN 30

MN 4

CSAH 24

T 112

CSAH 3

T 139

T 82

T 17

CR 132

T 53

CR 117

T 4

CR 119

CSAH 3

CSAH 18

CR 107

T 127

CSAH 19

CSAH 15

T 33

CR 103

T 120

CSAH 27

CSAH 27

CSAH 15

CSAH 2

CSAH 6

CR 112

CSAH 5

CSAH 21

CSAH 7

CSAH 32

CSAH 26

CSAH 26

CR 119

CSAH 19

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