County profile · official public datasets

Walsh County, ND

257 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30% rated Good, 50.2% Fair, 19.8% Poor.

257
Public bridges
30%
Good condition
19.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Walsh 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.

47th
of 53 on Poor share
19.8%
Poor-condition share
257
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.

Walsh County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Walsh County ranks #47 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 19.8%). Walsh County, North Dakota contains 257 public highway bridges. Roughly 30% are rated “Good,” 50.2% “Fair,” and 19.8% “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

257

Public highway bridges in Walsh County

Good condition

30%

77 of 257 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50.2%

129 of 257 rated 5-6

Poor condition

19.8%

51 of 257 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#47 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 257 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
30% (77)
Fair
50.2% (129)
Poor
19.8% (51)

Walsh County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,625 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 19.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 32 crossings a day against 679 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 257 of 257 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

54.9% of Walsh County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

141 of the 257 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 30% 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 24.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY ROAD over CREEK, built 1935, carries 400 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 51-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,625 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Walsh County's bridges were built

257 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 6 years older than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Walsh County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 19.8% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1972 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 Walsh County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Grand Forks County 335 12.5%
Morton County 272 8.8%
Walsh County (this page) 257 19.8%
Pembina County 204 22.5%
Richland County 197 13.2%
Stark County 157 3.8%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (257 bridges here).

Similar average build year

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

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

All 257 Good 77 Fair 129 Poor 51

Good-condition bridges (77)

COUNTY HIGHWAY 8

Good

Over: MIDDLE BRANCH PARK RIVER

6 WEST 3 NORTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2023 Load: 42.1 t ADT: 95

ND HIGHWAY 54

Good

Over: MORAIS RIVER

1 EAST OF I-29, Walsh, ND

Built 1959 Load: 43.2 t ADT: 1,400

ND HIGHWAY 32

Good

Over: NO. BRANCH FOREST RIVER

5 SOUTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 1962 Load: 44.0 t ADT: 790

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

2 EAST 10 SO. PARK RIVER, Walsh, ND

Built 2001 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 75

US HIGHWAY 81

Good

Over: PARK RIVER

1 NORTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 1971 Load: 47.3 t ADT: 3,270

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: FLOOD DIVERSION CHANNEL

1 SOUTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2018 Load: 47.6 t ADT: 50

ND HIGHWAY 18

Good

Over: CREEK

5 SOUTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 1993 Load: 50.7 t ADT: 580

US HIGHWAY 81

Good

Over: BRANCH FOREST RIVER

CITY OF MINTO, Walsh, ND

Built 1995 Load: 50.7 t ADT: 2,340

US HIGHWAY 81

Good

Over: CREEK

13 SOUTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 2001 Load: 52.0 t ADT: 1,870

5TH ST.EAST

Good

Over: CREEK

5TH ST.EAST GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2006 Load: 53.9 t ADT: 975

ND HIGHWAY 44

Good

Over: I-29/HERRICK INTERCHANGE

3 SOUTH ND 66, Walsh, ND

Built 2004 Load: 57.9 t ADT: 700

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

3 WEST 12 SOUTH GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 1980 Load: 59.9 t ADT: 22

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

1 WEST 10 SOUTH GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 1980 Load: 62.2 t ADT: 24

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

2 EAST OF LANKIN, Walsh, ND

Built 1975 Load: 62.8 t ADT: 415

ND HIGHWAY 32

Good

Over: MIDDLE BRANCH PARK RIVER

2 NORTH OF EDINBURG, Walsh, ND

Built 1976 Load: 64.5 t ADT: 840

62ND ST NE

Good

Over: CREEK

1 EAST 1 NORTH OF WARSAW, Walsh, ND

Built 2023 Load: 64.8 t ADT: 8

US HIGHWAY 81

Good

Over: DRAINAGE DITCH

5 SOUTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 1966 Load: 66.3 t ADT: 2,230

US HIGHWAY 81

Good

Over: DRAINAGE DITCH

3 SOUTH OF ND 17, Walsh, ND

Built 1966 Load: 68.1 t ADT: 2,370

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: DRAINAGE DITCH

5 EAST 3 NORTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2013 Load: 70.3 t ADT: 152

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: COUNTY DRAIN 87

2 EAST OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2018 Load: 79.7 t ADT: 100

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: COUNTY DRAIN 87

2 EAST 1 S OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2019 Load: 96.9 t ADT: 100

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: COUNTY DRAIN 87

1 EAST 1 SOUTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2019 Load: 96.9 t ADT: 5

ND HIGHWAY 17

Good

Over: DRAIN

2 EAST OF US 81, Walsh, ND

Built 2018 Load: 96.9 t ADT: 3,870

COUNTY ROAD

Good

Over: DRAIN DITCH

2 WEST 4 SOUTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 2012 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 10

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

1 SOUTH OF ADAMS, Walsh, ND

Built 2014 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 40

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Good

Over: CREEK

4 EAST 2 NORTH OF LANKIN, Walsh, ND

Built 2021 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 21

COUNTY ROAD 4

Good

Over: CREEK

4 EAST 3 NORTH OF GRAFTON, Walsh, ND

Built 1969 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 320

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.