Total bridges
40
Public highway bridges in Hughes County
County profile · official public datasets
Hughes County, SD
40 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40% rated Good, 37.5% Fair, 22.5% Poor.
- 40
- Public bridges
- 40%
- Good condition
- 22.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Hughes County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 48th
- of 66 on Poor share
- 22.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 40
- public highway bridges
- 1978
- 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.
Hughes County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hughes County ranks #48 of 66 South Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 22.5%). Hughes County, South Dakota contains 40 public highway bridges. Roughly 40% are rated “Good,” 37.5% “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.
Good condition
40%
16 of 40 rated 7-9
Fair condition
37.5%
15 of 40 rated 5-6
Poor condition
22.5%
9 of 40 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#48 of 66
Among South Dakota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 40 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 40% (16)
Fair 37.5% (15)
Poor 22.5% (9)
Hughes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 23,557 vehicle crossings a day
That is 37.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 22.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,617 crossings a day against 494 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 40 of 40 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
57.5% of Hughes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
23 of the 40 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 40% 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 65.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US014 over MISSOURI RV, built 1962, carries 15,450 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 23,557 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Hughes County's bridges were built
40 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
16 bridges
- 1980s 2
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s 4
1990–1999
4 bridges
- 2000s 5
2000–2009
5 bridges
- 2010s 4
2010–2019
4 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 40% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the South Dakota average (1975).
How Hughes County compares with South Dakota's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 South Dakota counties nearest Hughes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 22.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is 11 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 65 South Dakota counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County | 44 | 45.5% | 38.6% | 15.9% | 1969 |
| Hughes County (this page) | 40 | 40% | 37.5% | 22.5% | 1978 |
| Marshall County | 39 | 15.4% | 51.3% | 33.3% | 1965 |
| Brule County | 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 |
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 Hughes 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 Hughes County, both outside South Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside SD (40 bridges here).
- Taliaferro County, GA · 40 bridges
- Clark County, ID · 40 bridges
- St. John the Baptist County, LA · 40 bridges
- Douglas County, MN · 40 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside SD (1978 here).
- Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
- Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
- Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
- Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (9)
ADAMS STREET
PoorOver: CK
ADAMS ST. BLUNT, Hughes, SD
Built 1925 Load: 12.2 t ADT: 20
310 AVENUE
PoorOver: NORTH MEDICINE CK
1.0E & 0.5N BLUNT, Hughes, SD
Built 1934 Load: 12.2 t ADT: 33
314 AVENUE
PoorOver: SOUTH MEDICINE CK
5.0E & 0.4N BLUNT, Hughes, SD
Built 1961 Load: 14.7 t ADT: 13
321 AVENUE
PoorOver: CHAPELLE CK
0.3W & 10.17S HARROLD, Hughes, SD
Built 1963 Load: 17.2 t ADT: 99
US014
PoorOver: MISSOURI RV
HUGHES - STANLEY CO LINE, Hughes, SD
Built 1962 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 15,450
314 AVENUE
PoorOver: CHAPELLE CK
15.5S & 6.4W HARROLD, Hughes, SD
Built 1961 Load: 21.8 t ADT: 33
311 AVENUE
PoorOver: SOUTH MEDICINE CK
2 E 1.1 N BLUNT, Hughes, SD
Built 1964 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 96
CAPITOL AVE
PoorOver: CAPITOL LAKE OUTLET
CAPITOL AVE PIERRE, Hughes, SD
Built 1950 Load: 32.0 t ADT: 7,155
SD034
PoorOver: CHAPELLE CK
22.5 E JCT US 14 & 83, Hughes, SD
Built 1949 Load: 33.3 t ADT: 658
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.