County profile · official public datasets

Benson County, ND

40 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.5% rated Good, 25% Fair, 17.5% Poor.

40
Public bridges: 57.5%
Good condition: 17.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Benson 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.

44th
of 53 on Poor share: 17.5%
Poor-condition share: 40
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Benson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Benson County ranks #44 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 17.5%). Benson County, North Dakota contains 40 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.5% are rated “Good,” 25% “Fair,” and 17.5% “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 Benson County

Good condition

57.5%

23 of 40 rated 7-9

Fair condition

25%

10 of 40 rated 5-6

Poor condition

17.5%

7 of 40 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#44 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 40 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57.5% (23)

Fair

25% (10)

Poor

17.5% (7)

Benson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 781 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 17.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 112 crossings a day against 406 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 40 of 40 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

22.5% of Benson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

9 of the 40 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 57.5% 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 57.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US HIGHWAY 281 over BNRR SEP., built 1936, carries 450 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 781 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

2
1960s

2
1970s

3
1980s

8
1990s

8
2000s

9
2010s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 9 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 8 years newer than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Benson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 17.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 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 Benson County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Adams County	45	35.6%	51.1%	13.3%	1972
Dickey County	43	62.8%	37.2%	0%	1986
Slope County	43	86%	14%	0%	1989
Wells County	41	61%	31.7%	7.3%	1980
Benson County (this page)	40	57.5%	25%	17.5%	1983
Ransom County	35	51.4%	37.1%	11.4%	1968

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 Benson 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 Benson County, both outside North Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (40 bridges here).

Taliaferro County, GA · 40 bridges
Clark County, ID · 40 bridges
St. John the Baptist County, LA · 40 bridges
Douglas County, MN · 40 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ND (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

Fair

Over: CREEK

2 EAST OF NEW HWY 281, Benson, ND

Benson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Benson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 781 vehicle crossings a day

22.5% of Benson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 57.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Benson 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 (40)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

38th St NE

ND HIGHWAY 19

ND HIGHWAY 30

IRRFT ND HIWAY 57

ND HIGHWAY 19

N.D.HIGHWAY 19

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

IRRFT COUNTY HIWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

51st Ave NE

COUNTY HWY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HWY

US HIGHWAY 281

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US HIGHWAY 281

US HIGHWAY 281

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US HIGHWAY 281

US HIGHWAY 2

US HIGHWAY 281

US HIGHWAY 281

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY TRAIL

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HWY

IRRFT COUNTY HIWAY

US HIGHWAY 281

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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