County profile · official public datasets

Daniels County, MT

33 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 51.5% rated Good, 39.4% Fair, 9.1% Poor.

33
Public bridges: 51.5%
Good condition: 9.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Daniels County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

41st
of 56 on Poor share: 9.1%
Poor-condition share: 33
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Daniels County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Daniels County ranks #41 of 56 Montana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.1%). Daniels County, Montana contains 33 public highway bridges. Roughly 51.5% are rated “Good,” 39.4% “Fair,” and 9.1% “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 Daniels County

Good condition

51.5%

17 of 33 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.4%

13 of 33 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.1%

3 of 33 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#41 of 56

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

Condition distribution

Share of 33 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

51.5% (17)

Fair

39.4% (13)

Poor

9.1% (3)

Daniels County's Poor-condition bridges carry 300 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 100 crossings a day against 249 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 33 of 33 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.4% of Daniels County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

14 of the 33 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 51.5% 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 33.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY ROAD 224 over COAL CREEK 010, built 1960, carries 100 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 300 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

1
1940s

4
1950s

7
1960s

1
1970s

2
1980s

4
1990s

2
2000s

4
2010s

2
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 7 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1982, 5 years newer than the Montana average of 1977.

How Daniels County compares with Montana's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Montana counties nearest Daniels County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is 5 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 55 Montana counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Daniels County and the 5 Montana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Broadwater County	37	27%	67.6%	5.4%	1990
Fallon County	37	45.9%	51.4%	2.7%	1998
Toole County	35	34.3%	65.7%	0%	1973
Daniels County (this page)	33	51.5%	39.4%	9.1%	1982
Musselshell County	28	57.1%	39.3%	3.6%	1986
Garfield County	26	38.5%	57.7%	3.8%	1989

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MT (33 bridges here).

Lee County, GA · 33 bridges
Greeley County, KS · 33 bridges
Calvert County, MD · 33 bridges
Grand Traverse County, MI · 33 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MT (1982 here).

Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges

Fair

Over: WHITETAIL CREEK

WHITETAIL, Daniels, MT

Built 2004 Load: 35.4 t ADT: 131

S 511

Fair

Over: N FORK WHITETAIL CREEK

1M N WHITETAIL, Daniels, MT

Daniels County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Daniels County's Poor-condition bridges carry 300 vehicle crossings a day

42.4% of Daniels County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Daniels County compares with Montana's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (33)

EAGLE CREEK RD

S 248

IRR - S 251

S 248

E SUSAG RD

S 13

S 248

FRENCH LN

S 511

S 248

S 248

S 511

S 511

S 248

S 248

S 248

S 248

S 248

PEERLESS RD

S 13

S 13

IRR - S 13

FRENCH LN

NAVAJO RD

IRR - S 13

OLD SCOBEY RD

S 248

N FOUR BUTTES RD

S 5

IRR - S 13

COAL CREEK RD

COUNTY ROAD 224

COUNTY ROAD 226

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