County profile · official public datasets

Garfield County, MT

26 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.5% rated Good, 57.7% Fair, 3.8% Poor.

26
Public bridges
38.5%
Good condition
3.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Garfield County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 25%
lowest Poor share in state
3.8%
Poor-condition share
26
public highway bridges
1989
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.

Garfield County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Garfield County ranks #14 of 56 Montana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.8%). Garfield County, Montana contains 26 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.5% are rated “Good,” 57.7% “Fair,” and 3.8% “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

26

Public highway bridges in Garfield County

Good condition

38.5%

10 of 26 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.7%

15 of 26 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.8%

1 of 26 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#14 of 56

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

Condition distribution

Share of 26 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
38.5% (10)
Fair
57.7% (15)
Poor
3.8% (1)

Garfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 100 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 100 crossings a day against 523 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 26 of 26 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

30.8% of Garfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

8 of the 26 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 38.5% 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

STEVES FORK RD over STEVES FORK CREEK 003, built 1980, 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 100 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Garfield County's bridges were built

26 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 12 years newer than the Montana average of 1977.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Montana counties nearest Garfield County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 17 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Garfield County and the 5 Montana counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Musselshell County 28 3.6%
Petroleum County 26 15.4%
Treasure County 26 15.4%
Wheatland County 26 7.7%
Garfield County (this page) 26 3.8%
Wibaux County 25 4%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MT (26 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MT (1989 here).

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

All 26 Good 10 Fair 15 Poor 1

All bridges (26)

S 59

Fair

Over: SAND CREEK

5M SE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1953 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 396

S 543

Fair

Over: VAIL CREEK

2M N JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1976 Load: 17.2 t ADT: 77

VAN NORMAN RD

Fair

Over: BIG DRY CREEK 016

26M NE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1959 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 100

S 462

Fair

Over: LITTLE DRY CREEK

19M N ROCK SPRINGS, Garfield, MT

Built 1960 Load: 23.6 t ADT: 50

S 200

Fair

Over: MUSSELSHELL RIVER

MOSBY, Garfield, MT

Built 1973 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 532

VAN NORMAN RD

Fair

Over: WOODY CREEK 001

26M NE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2004 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 100

S 59

Fair

Over: LITTLE DRY CREEK

SOUTH COHAGEN, Garfield, MT

Built 1976 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 293

S 200

Fair

Over: DRAINAGE

20M W BROCKWAY, Garfield, MT

Built 1938 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 544

S 200

Fair

Over: BIG DRY CREEK

12M SW JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1992 Load: 28.1 t ADT: 479

S 200

Fair

Over: SAGEHEN CREEK

3M E MOSBY, Garfield, MT

Built 1973 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 532

S 200

Fair

Over: BIG DRY CREEK

13M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2013 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 469

S 200

Fair

Over: MAXWELL COULEE

22M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2012 Load: 54.4 t ADT: 469

S 200

Fair

Over: DRAINAGE

6M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2004 Load: 60.8 t ADT: 469

S 59

Fair

Over: THOMPSON CREEK

36M SE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1997 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 293

MT 200

Fair

Over: DOG CREEK

4M E MOSBY, Garfield, MT

Built 1985 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 532

S 200

Good

Over: DRAINAGE-STOCKPASS

18M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2023 ADT: 469

S 200

Good

Over: PADEN COULEE

19M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2023 ADT: 469

S 200

Good

Over: CALF CREEK

11M NE MOSBY, Garfield, MT

Built 1968 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 532

S 200

Good

Over: L-S CREEK

14M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2016 Load: 30.8 t ADT: 469

S 200

Good

Over: LITTLE DRY CREEK

26 M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2022 Load: 31.4 t ADT: 544

S 200

Good

Over: DUGOUT COULEE

27M SW JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1973 Load: 33.6 t ADT: 534

S 200-JORDAN AVE

Good

Over: BIG DRY CREEK

SOUTH EDGE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1993 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 1,084

S 200

Good

Over: VAIL CREEK-STOCKPASS

2M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2004 Load: 37.2 t ADT: 514

S 200

Good

Over: OLIVER COULEE

4M E JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 2004 Load: 47.2 t ADT: 514

BURGESS RD

Good

Over: WOODY CREEK 017

23M NE JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1996 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 100

STEVES FORK RD

Poor

Over: STEVES FORK CREEK 003

15M NW JORDAN, Garfield, MT

Built 1980 Load: 20.4 t ADT: 100

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.