County profile · official public datasets

Wells County, ND

41 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 61% rated Good, 31.7% Fair, 7.3% Poor.

41
Public bridges: 61%
Good condition: 7.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wells 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 45%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.3%
Poor-condition share: 41
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.

Wells County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wells County ranks #24 of 53 North Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.3%). Wells County, North Dakota contains 41 public highway bridges. Roughly 61% are rated “Good,” 31.7% “Fair,” and 7.3% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Wells County

Good condition

61%

25 of 41 rated 7-9

Fair condition

31.7%

13 of 41 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.3%

3 of 41 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 53

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

Condition distribution

Share of 41 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

61% (25)

Fair

31.7% (13)

Poor

7.3% (3)

Wells County's Poor-condition bridges carry 25 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 8 crossings a day against 126 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 41 of 41 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.8% of Wells County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

11 of the 41 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 61% 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 40% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY HIGHWAY over SHEYENNE RIVER, built 1955, carries 10 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 25 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1950s

5
1960s

5
1970s

3
1980s

17
1990s

5
2000s

2
2010s

1
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 17 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 41.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 5 years newer than the North Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 North Dakota counties nearest Wells County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1980 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 Wells County and the 5 North Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Adams County	45	35.6%	51.1%	13.3%	1972
Dickey County	43	62.8%	37.2%	0%	1986
Slope County	43	86%	14%	0%	1989
Wells County (this page)	41	61%	31.7%	7.3%	1980
Benson County	40	57.5%	25%	17.5%	1983
Ransom County	35	51.4%	37.1%	11.4%	1968

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ND (41 bridges here).

Saguache County, CO · 41 bridges
Echols County, GA · 41 bridges
Pike County, GA · 41 bridges
Ohio County, IN · 41 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

Fair

Over: New Rockford Canal

10.3 mi E-NE of Fessenden, Wells, ND

Built 1982 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 50

US HIGHWAY 52

Fair

Over: PIPESTEM CREEK

3 EAST OF ND 200 WEST, Wells, ND

Wells County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wells County's Poor-condition bridges carry 25 vehicle crossings a day

26.8% of Wells County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 40% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wells 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

All bridges (41)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US HIGHWAY 52

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 30

US HIGHWAY 52

US HIGHWAY 52

53rd Avenue NE

US HIGHWAY 52

ND HIGHWAY 30

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US HIGHWAY 52

COUNTY ROAD RR

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

ND HIGHWAY 3

ND HIGHWAY 30

ND HIGHWAY 30

COUNTY HIGHWAY

U S HIGHWAY 52

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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