County profile · official public datasets

Jerauld County, SD

35 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20% rated Good, 54.3% Fair, 25.7% Poor.

35
Public bridges: 20%
Good condition: 25.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Jerauld 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.

54th
of 66 on Poor share: 25.7%
Poor-condition share: 35
public highway bridges: 1967
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.

Jerauld County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jerauld County ranks #54 of 66 South Dakota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 25.7%). Jerauld County, South Dakota contains 35 public highway bridges. Roughly 20% are rated “Good,” 54.3% “Fair,” and 25.7% “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 Jerauld County

Good condition

20%

7 of 35 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.3%

19 of 35 rated 5-6

Poor condition

25.7%

9 of 35 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#54 of 66

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

Condition distribution

Share of 35 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

20% (7)

Fair

54.3% (19)

Poor

25.7% (9)

Jerauld County's Poor-condition bridges carry 556 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 25.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 62 crossings a day against 285 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 35 of 35 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

74.3% of Jerauld County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

26 of the 35 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 20% 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 49.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

221 STREET over SAND CK, built 1934, carries 275 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 556 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

4
1950s

8
1960s

8
1970s

8
2000s

3
2010s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 8 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 8 years older than the South Dakota average of 1975.

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

The 5 South Dakota counties nearest Jerauld County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 25.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1971 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 Jerauld County and the 5 South Dakota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jones County	37	13.5%	81.1%	5.4%	1965
Stanley County	37	37.8%	48.6%	13.5%	1969
Kingsbury County	35	17.1%	54.3%	28.6%	1964
Jerauld County (this page)	35	20%	54.3%	25.7%	1967
Day County	34	35.3%	29.4%	35.3%	1963
Oglala Lakota County	34	55.9%	38.2%	5.9%	1992

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SD (35 bridges here).

Seminole County, GA · 35 bridges
Manistee County, MI · 35 bridges
Toole County, MT · 35 bridges
Ransom County, ND · 35 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SD (1967 here).

Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges

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

All 35 Good 7 Fair 19 Poor 9

All bridges (35)

Sort:

Jerauld County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Jerauld County's Poor-condition bridges carry 556 vehicle crossings a day

74.3% of Jerauld County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 49.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Jerauld 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 (35)

367 AVENUE

393 AVE

373 AVENUE

365 AVENUE

236 STREET

232 AVENUE

233 STREET

390 AVENUE

224 STREET

221 STREET

382 AVENUE

235 STREET

SD034

SD034

SD034

US281

SD034

SD034

391 AVE

SD034

383 AVENUE

383 AVENUE

SD034

366 AVENUE

368 AVENUE

386 AVENUE

231 STREET

222ND STREET

230 ST

221 STREET

220 STREET

234 STREET

230TH STREET

230 STREET

392 AVENUE

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