County profile · official public datasets

Hettinger County, ND

64 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.4% rated Good, 50% Fair, 15.6% Poor.

64
Public bridges: 34.4%
Good condition: 15.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Hettinger 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.

40th
of 53 on Poor share: 15.6%
Poor-condition share: 64
public highway bridges: 1963
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.

Hettinger County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hettinger County ranks #40 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 15.6%). Hettinger County, North Dakota contains 64 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.4% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 15.6% “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 Hettinger County

Good condition

34.4%

22 of 64 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50%

32 of 64 rated 5-6

Poor condition

15.6%

10 of 64 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#40 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 64 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.4% (22)

Fair

50% (32)

Poor

15.6% (10)

Hettinger County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,006 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 15.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 101 crossings a day against 127 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 64 of 64 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

71.9% of Hettinger County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

46 of the 64 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 34.4% 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 82.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

ND HIGHWAY 22 over CANNONBALL RIVER, built 1960, carries 830 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,006 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

2
1930s

4
1940s

10
1950s

11
1960s

14
1970s

6
1980s

6
1990s

5
2000s

2
2010s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 12 years older than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Hettinger County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 15.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hettinger County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Emmons County	67	65.7%	31.3%	3%	1975
Cavalier County	66	24.2%	50%	25.8%	1973
Hettinger County (this page)	64	34.4%	50%	15.6%	1963
Billings County	60	61.7%	35%	3.3%	1979
Grant County	60	45%	45%	10%	1968
LaMoure County	60	48.3%	40%	11.7%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (64 bridges here).

Southeast Fairbanks County, AK · 64 bridges
Delta County, CO · 64 bridges
Sedgwick County, CO · 64 bridges
Hancock County, GA · 64 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ND (1963 here).

Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges

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

All 64 Good 22 Fair 32 Poor 10

Fair-condition bridges (32)

Sort:

Hettinger County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hettinger County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,006 vehicle crossings a day

71.9% of Hettinger County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 82.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hettinger 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

Fair-condition bridges (32)

89th Ave SW

72ND ST SW

58th Street SW

55 St SW

79th Ave SW

79th Ave SW

96th Ave SW

93rd Ave SW

82nd Ave SW

108th Avenue SW

64th Street SW

96th Ave SW

94th Avenue SW

87th Ave SW

65th St SW

81st St SW

12th St

83rd Ave SW

ND HIGHWAY 21

W 1st St

72nd St SW

81st St SW

111th Ave SW

ND HIGHWAY 21

60th St SW

ND HIGHWAY 21

111th Avenue SW

57th Street SW

ND HIGHWAY 8

ND HIGHWAY 21

ND HIGHWAY 22

ND HIGHWAY 22

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