County profile · official public datasets

Pembina County, ND

204 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 22.5% rated Good, 54.9% Fair, 22.5% Poor.

204
Public bridges: 22.5%
Good condition: 22.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pembina 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.

49th
of 53 on Poor share: 22.5%
Poor-condition share: 204
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Pembina County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pembina County ranks #49 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 22.5%). Pembina County, North Dakota contains 204 public highway bridges. Roughly 22.5% are rated “Good,” 54.9% “Fair,” and 22.5% “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

204

Public highway bridges in Pembina County

Good condition

22.5%

46 of 204 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.9%

112 of 204 rated 5-6

Poor condition

22.5%

46 of 204 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#49 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 204 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

22.5% (46)

Fair

54.9% (112)

Poor

22.5% (46)

Pembina County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,053 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 22.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 132 crossings a day against 578 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 204 of 204 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

56.4% of Pembina County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

115 of the 204 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 22.5% 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 47.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

INTERSTATE 29 over DRAIN DITCH #39, built 1958, carries 2,850 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 46-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,053 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

2
1920s

3
1930s

4
1940s

23
1950s

41
1960s

36
1970s

35
1980s

31
1990s

10
2000s

4
2010s

11
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 41 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 6 years older than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Pembina County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 22.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1971 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 Pembina County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Morton County	272	42.3%	48.9%	8.8%	1971
Walsh County	257	30%	50.2%	19.8%	1969
Pembina County (this page)	204	22.5%	54.9%	22.5%	1969
Richland County	197	38.1%	48.7%	13.2%	1971
Stark County	157	43.3%	52.9%	3.8%	1976
Traill County	151	31.1%	51%	17.9%	1970

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (204 bridges here).

Greene County, AL · 204 bridges
Flathead County, MT · 204 bridges
Okfuskee County, OK · 204 bridges
Robertson County, TN · 204 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ND (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 204 Good 46 Fair 112 Poor 46

Poor-condition bridges (46)

Sort:

Pembina County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pembina County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,053 vehicle crossings a day

56.4% of Pembina County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 47.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pembina 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

Poor-condition bridges (46)

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