County profile · official public datasets

Burke County, ND

29 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 13.8% rated Good, 69% Fair, 17.2% Poor.

29
Public bridges: 13.8%
Good condition: 17.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

42nd
of 53 on Poor share: 17.2%
Poor-condition share: 29
public highway bridges: 1968
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.

Burke County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Burke County ranks #42 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 17.2%). Burke County, North Dakota contains 29 public highway bridges. Roughly 13.8% are rated “Good,” 69% “Fair,” and 17.2% “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 Burke County

Good condition

13.8%

4 of 29 rated 7-9

Fair condition

69%

20 of 29 rated 5-6

Poor condition

17.2%

5 of 29 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#42 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 29 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

13.8% (4)

Fair

69% (20)

Poor

17.2% (5)

Burke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 115 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 17.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 23 crossings a day against 246 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 29 of 29 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65.5% of Burke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

19 of the 29 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 13.8% 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 43.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY HIGHWAY over CREEK, built 1970, carries 50 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 115 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

3
1940s

1
1950s

2
1960s

10
1970s

5
1980s

3
1990s

1
2000s

2
2010s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 34.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1968, 7 years older than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Burke County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 17.2% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Burke County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Golden Valley County	34	38.2%	61.8%	0%	1968
Sargent County	30	53.3%	30%	16.7%	1978
Burke County (this page)	29	13.8%	69%	17.2%	1968
Eddy County	27	59.3%	29.6%	11.1%	1979
Mountrail County	27	59.3%	37%	3.7%	1989
Oliver County	24	41.7%	50%	8.3%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (29 bridges here).

Garden County, NE · 29 bridges
Ceiba County, PR · 29 bridges
Guayama County, PR · 29 bridges
Jim Hogg County, TX · 29 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ND (1968 here).

Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges

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

All 29 Good 4 Fair 20 Poor 5

All bridges (29)

Sort:

Burke County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Burke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 115 vehicle crossings a day

65.5% of Burke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 43.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Burke 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 (29)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 8

ND HIGHWAY 50

ND HIGHWAY 50

U.S. HIGHWAY 52

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 40

ND HIGHWAY 5

ND HIGHWAY 8

U.S. HIGHWAY 52

US HIGHWAY 52

ND HIGHWAY 5

ND HIGHWAY 5

ND HIGHWAY 5

ND HIGHWAY 50

ND HIGHWAY 5

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 8

ND HIGHWAY 5

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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