Total bridges
19
Public highway bridges in Foster County
County profile · official public datasets
Foster County, ND
19 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 47.4% rated Good, 47.4% Fair, 5.3% Poor.
- 19
- Public bridges
- 47.4%
- Good condition
- 5.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Foster County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 36%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 5.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 19
- public highway bridges
- 1980
- 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.
Foster County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Foster County ranks #19 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.3%). Foster County, North Dakota contains 19 public highway bridges. Roughly 47.4% are rated “Good,” 47.4% “Fair,” and 5.3% “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.
Good condition
47.4%
9 of 19 rated 7-9
Fair condition
47.4%
9 of 19 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5.3%
1 of 19 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#19 of 53
Among North Dakota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 19 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 47.4% (9)
Fair 47.4% (9)
Poor 5.3% (1)
Foster County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5 crossings a day against 988 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 19 of 19 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
36.8% of Foster County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
7 of the 19 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 47.4% 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
COUNTY HIGHWAY over JAMES RIVER, built 1925, carries 5 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 5 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Foster County's bridges were built
19 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
4 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 4 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 5 years newer than the North Dakota average of 1975.
How Foster County compares with North Dakota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Foster County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 7 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 52 North Dakota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver County | 24 | 41.7% | 50% | 8.3% | 1974 |
| Nelson County | 23 | 34.8% | 47.8% | 17.4% | 1975 |
| Griggs County | 22 | 63.6% | 27.3% | 9.1% | 1974 |
| Sioux County | 22 | 59.1% | 36.4% | 4.5% | 1970 |
| Foster County (this page) | 19 | 47.4% | 47.4% | 5.3% | 1980 |
| Rolette County | 18 | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 1971 |
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 Foster 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 Foster County, both outside North Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside ND (19 bridges here).
- Gilpin County, CO · 19 bridges
- Blaine County, NE · 19 bridges
- Thomas County, NE · 19 bridges
- Aguada County, PR · 19 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside ND (1980 here).
- Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
- Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
- Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
- McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (19)
COUNTY ROAD
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
8 NORTH 8 EAST CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1977 Load: 19.3 t ADT: 145
COUNTY ROAD
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
14 E 5 N CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1980 Load: 20.4 t ADT: 20
COUNTY ROAD
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
15 E 4 S OF CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1979 Load: 24.6 t ADT: 20
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
15 EAST 5 N CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1967 Load: 26.2 t ADT: 220
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: PIPESTEM CREEK
8 SOUTH OF CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1970 Load: 33.4 t ADT: 330
US HIGHWAY 52
FairOver: CP RAILWAY
WEST OF JUNCTION US 281, Foster, ND
Built 1979 Load: 33.5 t ADT: 2,290
ND HIGHWAY 9
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
9 EAST OF US 281, Foster, ND
Built 1965 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 280
COUNTY ROAD
FairOver: PIPESTEM CREEK
1 WEST 6 SOUTH CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1966 Load: 40.1 t ADT: 65
COUNTY HIGHWAY
FairOver: JAMES RIVER
2 EAST 2 SOUTH GRACE CITY, Foster, ND
Built 2008 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 10
COUNTY ROAD
GoodOver: PIPESTEM CREEK
2 WEST 6 SOUTH CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1983 Load: 19.1 t ADT: 20
COUNTY ROAD
GoodOver: JAMES RIVER
12 E 7 N CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 1987 Load: 27.5 t ADT: 20
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: JAMES RIVER
15 E 2 N OF CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 2004 Load: 33.8 t ADT: 20
ND HIGHWAY 200
GoodOver: JAMES RIVER
11 WEST OF ND 20, Foster, ND
Built 1959 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 680
COUNTY ROAD
GoodOver: JAMES RIVER
8 S 10 E OF NEW ROCKFORD, Foster, ND
Built 2019 Load: 36.2 t ADT: 20
US HIGHWAY 52
GoodOver: CP RAILWAY
JCT US 52 & ND 200, Foster, ND
Built 2004 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 5,800
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: PIPESTEM CREEK
4 W 3 S CARRINGTON, Foster, ND
Built 2001 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 20
US HIGHWAY 52
GoodOver: PIPESTEM CREEK
7 WEST OF US 281, Foster, ND
Built 1965 Load: 45.1 t ADT: 1,830
ND HIGHWAY 20
GoodOver: BN RAILROAD
GLENFIELD, Foster, ND
Built 1989 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 480
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: JAMES RIVER
2 WEST 1 SOUTH GRACE CITY, Foster, ND
Built 1925 Load: 9.8 t ADT: 5
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
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.