How many bridges are in Minnesota?

Minnesota has 13,532 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory. View detailed condition data for each bridge on PlainBridges.

What percentage of bridges in Minnesota are in Poor condition?

4.4% of bridge records in Minnesota are in Poor condition, meaning the lowest applicable major-component rating is 4 or below, compared with 7.5% across state inventories.

State profile · Below median Poor share

Minnesota bridge safety

Name: Minnesota public highway bridge inventory (FHWA NBI)
Creator: PlainBridges
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, condition ratings, load ratings, and Poor-condition shares for every public highway bridge in Minnesota.

Compiled by PlainBridges

13,532
Public bridges: 56.7%
Good condition: 4.4%
Poor condition

Minnesota holds 13,532 public highway bridges (#21 of 52 by inventory) with a 4.44% Poor share (#40 of 52 by Poor share).

That is 4.4% of the state's inventory, against an average of 7.5% across the 54 states and territories with Poor-rated bridges on file, which places it 13 of 54 ordered from the lowest Poor share upward. A bridge is rated Poor when its weakest applicable component scores 4 or below on the inspecting agency's 0-9 scale, so the category is a maintenance and funding signal rather than a closure order or a live crossing-safety verdict.

Inventory: FHWA NBI 2024 · last ETL August 2026

Total Bridges

13,532

Public highway bridges in Minnesota

Good Condition

56.7%

7,667 bridges rated 7-9

6.7pp vs 50% benchmark

Poor Condition

4.4%

601 bridges whose lowest applicable component is rated 0-4

-3.1pp vs national avg 7.5%

Minnesota vs national bridge condition

Minnesota - Good condition share 56.7%

National avg

Share of bridges rated 7-9 on the FHWA 0-9 scale (deck, superstructure, substructure all good).

Minnesota - Poor-condition share 14.8%

National avg

Lower is better. Bar maxes at 30% (worst-state ceiling). National average sits at 7.5%.

Inventory size and Poor-condition share are different measures: Minnesota has 13,532 bridges and a 4.4% Poor-condition share in the 2024 NBI, rank #13 of 54 jurisdictions ordered from the lowest share upward. The dashed comparisons mark the national average state rate and the midpoint of the plotted inventory range; neither is a live safety or closure threshold.

Minnesota vs all states by public bridge inventory

Where this state's FHWA NBI public-highway bridge count sits among every state and territory on PlainBridges

13,532 21st of 54 higher than 33 of 54 states

States and territories, banded by public bridge inventory size

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory · 2024

Read the rank neighborhood for Minnesota

The highlighted point is Minnesota: 13,532 bridges and 4.44% in Poor condition, rank #13 of 54 jurisdictions ordered from the lowest share upward. The five jurisdictions immediately above and below Minnesota on that same Poor-share ordering:

Virginia: 14,120 bridges · 3.39% Poor
Tennessee: 20,379 bridges · 4.41% Poor
Minnesota: 13,532 bridges · 4.44% Poor
New Mexico: 4,035 bridges · 4.51% Poor
Maryland: 5,484 bridges · 4.56% Poor

The full national sortable table lives on the rankings page.

Material families in Minnesota

Exclusive FHWA material families across all 13,532 bridges in this state; continuous variants fold into the parent family. Orthogonal to the Poor-share scatter above.

Concrete 7,030 bridges (52%) Prestressed concrete 3,527 bridges (26%) Steel 1,929 bridges (14%) Wood or timber 1,022 bridges (8%) Other 24 bridges (0%)

Who maintains Minnesota’s inventory

State agency holds 27.9% of the 13,532 public highway bridges filed under Minnesota in the 2024 NBI, the agency-of-record split for this state, not a condition verdict.

State agency 3,770 bridges (28%) County agency 5,388 bridges (40%) Local agency 4,256 bridges (31%) Federal agency 87 bridges (1%) Other 31 bridges (0%)

When Minnesota’s bridges were built

Pre-1950 construction accounts for 7.6% of the 13,532 bridges with a recorded original year in Minnesota. Era bands are orthogonal to the Poor-share ranking above.

Pre-1950 1,028 bridges (8%) 1950–1979 4,006 bridges (30%) 1980–1999 4,193 bridges (31%) 2000+ 4,305 bridges (32%)

Condition Distribution

Bridge inventory deck-condition mix - Minnesota (FHWA NBI)

Counties (87)

Aitkin 96 Anoka 151 Becker 53 Beltrami 101 Benton 117 Big Stone 17 Blue Earth 193 Brown 108 Carlton 147 Carver 115 Cass 85 Chippewa 116 Chisago 61 Clay 225 Clearwater 50 Cook 58 Cottonwood 151 Crow Wing 73 Dakota 259 Dodge 177 Douglas 40 Faribault 226 Fillmore 348 Freeborn 142 Goodhue 333 Grant 31 Hennepin 936 Houston 172 Hubbard 45 Isanti 37 Itasca 170 Jackson 182 Kanabec 82 Kandiyohi 94 Kittson 160 Koochiching 98 Lac qui Parle 174 Lake 90 Lake of the Woods 62 Le Sueur 68 Lincoln 106 Lyon 234 Mahnomen 40 Marshall 215 Martin 162 McLeod 77 Meeker 63 Mille Lacs 107 Morrison 164 Mower 343 Murray 134 Nicollet 54 Nobles 304 Norman 149 Olmsted 365 Otter Tail 149 Pennington 49 Pine 171 Pipestone 185 Polk 268 Pope 47 Ramsey 341 Red Lake 59 Redwood 200 Renville 141 Rice 142 Rock 265 Roseau 142 Scott 129 Sherburne 47 Sibley 102 St. Louis 663 Stearns 229 Steele 134 Stevens 44 Swift 97 Todd 136 Traverse 121 Wabasha 147 Wadena 77 Waseca 83 Washington 112 Watonwan 167 Wilkin 196 Winona 237 Wright 74 Yellow Medicine 218

Minnesota vs nearby ranks

Adjacent states by Poor-condition share (lower share = better)

States are ranked by the share of bridges whose lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below. This describes recorded condition; it does not measure funding effectiveness or live crossing safety. States here sit immediately above and below Minnesota on the same metric.

Virginia

3.39% top marginal rate

Structure: Progressive
Burden @ $100K: $14,120

Tennessee

4.41% top marginal rate

Structure: Progressive
Burden @ $100K: $20,379

Selected

Minnesota

4.44% top marginal rate

Structure: Progressive
Burden @ $100K: $13,532

New Mexico

4.51% top marginal rate

Structure: Progressive
Burden @ $100K: $4,035

Maryland

4.56% top marginal rate

Structure: Progressive
Burden @ $100K: $5,484

Bridges Needing Most Attention in Minnesota

Six lowest-condition bridges in Minnesota, ranked by the portal's composite display score. Inspection intervals are risk-based under current NBIS rules.

Minnesota vs national bridge condition

Material families in Minnesota

Who maintains Minnesota’s inventory

When Minnesota’s bridges were built

Condition Distribution

Counties (87)

Bridges Needing Most Attention in Minnesota

T 484

CR 118

CR 51

T 1331

M 12

T 76

All Bridges in Minnesota

CSAH 14

T 177

T 246

T 2

T 126

CR 102

SERVICE RD

CR 63

UT 74

CR M

CSAH 42

T 197

T 244

T 391

T 310

T 209

M 340

CR 931

M 22

T 47

T 31

LOC 1

M 4

CR 107

T 87

M 1596

CSAH 9

CSAH 42

UT 383

CR 51

T 183

CR 57

CSAH 13

CSAH 29

CSAH 25

CSAH 16

UT 335

CSAH 19

CSAH 56

CR 71

CSAH 30

CSAH 24

T 377

T 40

T 96

T 185

T 834

T 82

CR 113

T 146

Related