County profile · official public datasets

Brule County, SD

38 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.2% rated Good, 63.2% Fair, 2.6% Poor.

38
Public bridges: 34.2%
Good condition: 2.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Brule County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 9%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.6%
Poor-condition share: 38
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Brule County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Brule County ranks #6 of 66 South Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Brule County, South Dakota contains 38 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.2% are rated “Good,” 63.2% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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 Brule County

Good condition

34.2%

13 of 38 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.2%

24 of 38 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.6%

1 of 38 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#6 of 66

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

Condition distribution

Share of 38 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.2% (13)

Fair

63.2% (24)

Poor

2.6% (1)

Brule County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,554 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,554 crossings a day against 3,378 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 38 of 38 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

86.8% of Brule County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

33 of the 38 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 34.2% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SD050 over R&W RR, built 1952, carries 4,554 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,554 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

1
1940s

2
1950s

10
1960s

15
1970s

5
1990s

2
2000s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 39.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 9 years older than the South Dakota average of 1975.

How Brule County compares with South Dakota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 South Dakota counties nearest Brule County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 65 South Dakota counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Brule County and the 5 South Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hughes County	40	40%	37.5%	22.5%	1978
Marshall County	39	15.4%	51.3%	33.3%	1965
Brule County (this page)	38	34.2%	63.2%	2.6%	1966
Jones County	37	13.5%	81.1%	5.4%	1965
Stanley County	37	37.8%	48.6%	13.5%	1969
Jerauld County	35	20%	54.3%	25.7%	1967

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SD (38 bridges here).

Peach County, GA · 38 bridges
Chowan County, NC · 38 bridges
Kinney County, TX · 38 bridges
Lipscomb County, TX · 38 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SD (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 38 Good 13 Fair 24 Poor 1

All bridges (38)

Sort:

Brule County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Brule County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,554 vehicle crossings a day

86.8% of Brule County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Brule County compares with South 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 (38)

239 STREET

355 AVENUE

242 STREET

I090

254 STREET

365 AVENUE

365 AVENUE

365 AVE FAS 6115

350 AVE FAS 6471

350 AVENUE

261 STREET

263 STREET

348 AVE

SD050

I090 WB OFF RAMP

I090 L

SD045

SD045

SD045

I090 E

I090 W

241 STREET

IRR AR SD050

244 ST FAS 6506

I090

365 AVE

I090 W

I090 E

I090 WB OFF RAMP

I090 W

I090 E

SD050

SD050

SD050

I090

SD045

SD045

SD050

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