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

64

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.

When Hettinger County's bridges were built

64 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

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.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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 Poor
Emmons County 67 3%
Cavalier County 66 25.8%
Hettinger County (this page) 64 15.6%
Billings County 60 3.3%
Grant County 60 10%
LaMoure County 60 11.7%

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).

Similar average build year

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

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

All bridges (64)

86th Ave SW

Good

Over: THIRTY MILE CREEK

6 NORTH 5 EAST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1940 Load: 47.3 t ADT: 50

ND HIGHWAY 8

Good

Over: CANNONBALL RIVER

SOUTH END OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1979 Load: 50.4 t ADT: 670

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: THIRTY MILE CREEK

8 NORTH 2 EAST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 2011 Load: 67.4 t ADT: 20

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: SPRING CREEK

2 EAST OF REGENT, Hettinger, ND

Built 2002 Load: 74.8 t ADT: 75

94th Avenue SW

Poor

Over: THIRTY MILE CREEK

12 NORTH 3 WEST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1941 Load: 3.5 t ADT: 15

MAIN ST

Poor

Over: CANNONBALL RIVER

1 SOUTH OF NEW ENGLAND, Hettinger, ND

Built 1912 Load: 5.2 t ADT: 50

93rd Avenue SW

Poor

Over: CREEK

10 NORTH 2 WEST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1948 Load: 5.2 t ADT: 20

83rd St SW

Poor

Over: CREEK

10 SOUTH 6 EAST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1942 Load: 6.2 t ADT: 10

COUNTY ROAD

Poor

Over: CANNONBALL RIVER

2 N. 4 W. OF REGENT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1944 Load: 7.2 t ADT: 26

101st Ave SW

Poor

Over: SPRING CREEK

1 N. 1 E. OF REGENT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1936 Load: 10.4 t ADT: 10

107TH AVE SW

Poor

Over: THIRTY MILE CREEK

10 E 5 N OF NEW ENGLAND, Hettinger, ND

Built 1940 Load: 13.1 t ADT: 15

95th Avenue SW

Poor

Over: CREEK

11 NORTH 3 WEST OF MOTT, Hettinger, ND

Built 1960 Load: 16.0 t ADT: 20

116th Ave SW

Poor

Over: CHANTA PETA CREEK

14 S. 1 E. NEW ENGLAND, Hettinger, ND

Built 1915 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 10

ND HIGHWAY 22

Poor

Over: CANNONBALL RIVER

AT NEW ENGLAND, Hettinger, ND

Built 1960 Load: 32.0 t ADT: 830

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.