County profile · official public datasets

Wright County, MN

74 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.1% rated Good, 43.2% Fair, 2.7% Poor.

74
Public bridges: 54.1%
Good condition: 2.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wright County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 32%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.7%
Poor-condition share: 74
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Wright County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wright County ranks #28 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.7%). Wright County, Minnesota contains 74 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.1% are rated “Good,” 43.2% “Fair,” and 2.7% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Wright County

Good condition

54.1%

40 of 74 rated 7-9

Fair condition

43.2%

32 of 74 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.7%

2 of 74 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#28 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 74 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.1% (40)

Fair

43.2% (32)

Poor

2.7% (2)

Wright County's Poor-condition bridges carry 23,953 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 11,977 crossings a day against 6,443 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 74 of 74 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

28.4% of Wright County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 74 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 54.1% 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 96% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I 94 over CSAH 19, built 1971, carries 23,000 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 23,953 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

3
1960s

3
1970s

15
1980s

7
1990s

10
2000s

21
2010s

7
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 21 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1988) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Wright County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wright County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Kanabec County	82	58.5%	37.8%	3.7%	1985
McLeod County	77	50.6%	45.5%	3.9%	1990
Wadena County	77	79.2%	16.9%	3.9%	1993
Wright County (this page)	74	54.1%	43.2%	2.7%	1988
Crow Wing County	73	42.5%	50.7%	6.8%	1987
Le Sueur County	68	45.6%	50%	4.4%	1978

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (74 bridges here).

Clinch County, GA · 74 bridges
Decatur County, GA · 74 bridges
Hart County, GA · 74 bridges
Carlisle County, KY · 74 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Grant County, OK · avg 1988 · 476 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges

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

All 74 Good 40 Fair 32 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (40)

Sort:

Wright County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wright County's Poor-condition bridges carry 23,953 vehicle crossings a day

28.4% of Wright County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 96% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wright 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 (40)

T 388

T 408

MN 25

I 94

T 643

I 94

I 94

CSAH 4

T 296

MN 25

T 194

T 481

T 32

T 303

CSAH 36

T 258

CSAH 6

T 413

MN 101

MN 101

T 11

CON 6106

T 18

CSAH 39

CSAH 35

CSAH 38

T 288

CSAH 40

CON 6107

MN 101

MN 101

CSAH 9

T 481

CSAH 14

CSAH 18

CSAH 2

CR 128

T 118

MSAS 104

CON 64

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