Total bridges
20
Public highway bridges in Edmunds County
County profile · official public datasets
Edmunds County, SD
20 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35% rated Good, 40% Fair, 25% Poor.
- 20
- Public bridges
- 35%
- Good condition
- 25%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Edmunds County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- 53rd
- of 66 on Poor share
- 25%
- Poor-condition share
- 20
- public highway bridges
- 1991
- 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.
Edmunds County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Edmunds County ranks #53 of 66 South Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 25%). Edmunds County, South Dakota contains 20 public highway bridges. Roughly 35% are rated “Good,” 40% “Fair,” and 25% “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.
Good condition
35%
7 of 20 rated 7-9
Fair condition
40%
8 of 20 rated 5-6
Poor condition
25%
5 of 20 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#53 of 66
Among South Dakota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 20 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 35% (7)
Fair 40% (8)
Poor 25% (5)
Edmunds County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,208 vehicle crossings a day
That is 20.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 25% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 642 crossings a day against 265 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 20 of 20 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
25% of Edmunds County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
5 of the 20 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 35% 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 89.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US012 over CK, built 1974, carries 2,882 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 3,208 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Edmunds County's bridges were built
20 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s 3
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
4 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 8 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 40% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1991, 16 years newer than the South Dakota average of 1975.
How Edmunds County compares with South Dakota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 South Dakota counties nearest Edmunds County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 25% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1991 against a peer-group mean of 1981 is 10 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 65 South Dakota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo County | 25 | 32% | 64% | 4% | 1976 |
| Potter County | 24 | 54.2% | 45.8% | 0% | 1981 |
| Todd County | 24 | 41.7% | 29.2% | 29.2% | 1986 |
| Hyde County | 23 | 34.8% | 39.1% | 26.1% | 1974 |
| Clark County | 20 | 60% | 40% | 0% | 1987 |
| Edmunds County (this page) | 20 | 35% | 40% | 25% | 1991 |
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 Edmunds 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 Edmunds County, both outside South Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside SD (20 bridges here).
- Haines County, AK · 20 bridges
- Custer County, CO · 20 bridges
- Quitman County, GA · 20 bridges
- Issaquena County, MS · 20 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside SD (1991 here).
- Denver County, CO · avg 1991 · 458 bridges
- Baldwin County, AL · avg 1991 · 381 bridges
- Union County, NC · avg 1991 · 353 bridges
- Rock County, MN · avg 1991 · 265 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (8)
146th Street
FairOver: Preachers Run Creek
12.0S & 9.5E of Ipswich, Edmunds, SD
Built 2004 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 60
US012
FairOver: BURLINGTON NORTHERN RR
AT MINA, Edmunds, SD
Built 1970 Load: 26.0 t ADT: 3,599
US012
FairOver: PREACHERS RUN CK
6.7 E OF IPSWICH, Edmunds, SD
Built 1974 Load: 44.6 t ADT: 3,599
US012
FairOver: BNSF RR
0.5 E OF ROSCOE, Edmunds, SD
Built 2006 Load: 44.7 t ADT: 2,236
SD045
FairOver: CK
3.9 S MCPHERSON CO LINE, Edmunds, SD
Built 1992 Load: 76.6 t ADT: 352
SD045
FairOver: CK
2.2 N FAULK CO LINE, Edmunds, SD
Built 1986 Load: 82.8 t ADT: 725
142nd Street
FairOver: Creek
8S & 2E of Ipswich, Edmunds, SD
Built 2009 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 209
126th Street
FairOver: Creek
8N & 5.4E of Craven Cor, Edmunds, SD
Built 2004 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 25
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
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.