County profile · official public datasets

Barnes County, ND

79 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55.7% rated Good, 41.8% Fair, 2.5% Poor.

79
Public bridges: 55.7%
Good condition: 2.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Barnes County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 17%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.5%
Poor-condition share: 79
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.

Barnes County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Barnes County ranks #9 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.5%). Barnes County, North Dakota contains 79 public highway bridges. Roughly 55.7% are rated “Good,” 41.8% “Fair,” and 2.5% “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 Barnes County

Good condition

55.7%

44 of 79 rated 7-9

Fair condition

41.8%

33 of 79 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.5%

2 of 79 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#9 of 53

Among North Dakota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 79 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

55.7% (44)

Fair

41.8% (33)

Poor

2.5% (2)

Barnes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 360 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 180 crossings a day against 1,175 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 79 of 79 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43% of Barnes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

34 of the 79 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 55.7% 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 97.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY HIWAY 0211 over I-94/SANBORN INTERCHANGE, built 1958, carries 350 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 360 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

1
1950s

18
1960s

10
1970s

10
1980s

13
1990s

9
2000s

8
2010s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 18 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the North Dakota average (1975).

How Barnes County compares with North Dakota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Barnes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 52 North Dakota counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Barnes County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Barnes County (this page)	79	55.7%	41.8%	2.5%	1978
Stutsman County	78	39.7%	53.8%	6.4%	1971
Dunn County	74	62.2%	35.1%	2.7%	1988
Mercer County	72	40.3%	54.2%	5.6%	1975
Bowman County	69	65.2%	31.9%	2.9%	1984
Emmons County	67	65.7%	31.3%	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 Barnes 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 Barnes County, both outside North Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (79 bridges here).

Cleveland County, AR · 79 bridges
Woodruff County, AR · 79 bridges
Barrow County, GA · 79 bridges
Edwards County, IL · 79 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ND (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 79 Good 44 Fair 33 Poor 2

All bridges (79)

Sort:

Barnes County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Barnes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 360 vehicle crossings a day

43% of Barnes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 97.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Barnes County compares with North Dakota'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 (79)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

4TH ST SW

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIWAY 0203

COUNTY HIWAY 0207

MINOR ROAD

VIKING DRIVE SW

ACCESS ROAD

INTERSTATE 94

COUNTY ROAD

INTERSTATE 94

INTERSTATE 94

ND HIGHWAY 32

COUNTY HIWAY

COUNTY HIWAY 221

ND HIGHWAY 32

INTERSTATE 94

INTERSTATE 94

COUNTY ROAD 0237

INTERSTATE 94

ND HIGHWAY 26

I-94 BUSINESS LOOP

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 1

6TH STREET NE

COUNTY HIWAY 221

APPROACH TO SCHOOL

ND HIGHWAY 1

INTERSTATE 94

TOWNSHIP ROAD

INTERSTATE 94

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

TOWNSHIP ROAD

ND HIGHWAY 32

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 46

COUNTY HIGHWAY 7

3RD AVENUE SE

5TH AVE NE

5TH AVE. SE

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD

CITY STREET

INTERSTATE 94

Related