County profile · official public datasets

Yellow Medicine County, MN

218 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 67.4% rated Good, 29.8% Fair, 2.8% Poor.

218
Public bridges: 67.4%
Good condition: 2.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 34%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.8%
Poor-condition share: 218
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Yellow Medicine County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Yellow Medicine County ranks #30 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota contains 218 public highway bridges. Roughly 67.4% are rated “Good,” 29.8% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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

218

Public highway bridges in Yellow Medicine County

Good condition

67.4%

147 of 218 rated 7-9

Fair condition

29.8%

65 of 218 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.8%

6 of 218 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#30 of 87

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

Condition distribution

Share of 218 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

67.4% (147)

Fair

29.8% (65)

Poor

2.8% (6)

Yellow Medicine County's Poor-condition bridges carry 536 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 89 crossings a day against 373 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 218 of 218 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

22% of Yellow Medicine County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

48 of the 218 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 67.4% 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 86.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MN 67 over YELLOW MEDICINE RIVER, built 1992, carries 466 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 536 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

4
1920s

6
1930s

7
1940s

1
1950s

3
1960s

11
1970s

52
1980s

36
1990s

52
2000s

25
2010s

15
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 52 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Minnesota average (1986).

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

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Yellow Medicine County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Yellow Medicine County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lyon County	234	75.2%	21.8%	3%	1983
Stearns County	229	54.6%	42.8%	2.6%	1981
Faribault County	226	50.9%	44.7%	4.4%	1986
Clay County	225	53.8%	40.4%	5.8%	1984
Yellow Medicine County (this page)	218	67.4%	29.8%	2.8%	1984
Marshall County	215	72.1%	26.5%	1.4%	1988

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (218 bridges here).

Okaloosa County, FL · 218 bridges
Fillmore County, NE · 218 bridges
Newberry County, SC · 218 bridges
McNairy County, TN · 218 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1984 here).

Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges
Steuben County, NY · avg 1984 · 627 bridges

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

All 218 Good 147 Fair 65 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (147)

Sort:

Yellow Medicine County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Yellow Medicine County's Poor-condition bridges carry 536 vehicle crossings a day

22% of Yellow Medicine County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 86.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Yellow Medicine 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 (147)

CSAH 6

CSAH 3

CR D2

T 46

CSAH 13

T 18

T 38

T 58

T 33

T 63

MN 67

T 82

CSAH 35

MN 68

CR A9

T 161

T 57

MN 67

T 10

CSAH 35

CSAH 1

T 175

T 51

CR A6

T 143

T 148

T 273

T 15

T 20

T 28

T 20

T 15

T 70

T 21

T 51

T 112

T 72

CR D9

CR D9

T 20

T 11

T 40

T 45

T 268

T 6

CR C4

T 27

T 20

T 37

T 154

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