County profile · official public datasets

Kit Carson County, CO

130 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30.8% rated Good, 67.7% Fair, 1.5% Poor.

130
Public bridges: 30.8%
Good condition: 1.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.5%
Poor-condition share: 130
public highway bridges: 1970
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.

Kit Carson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kit Carson County ranks #10 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Kit Carson County, Colorado contains 130 public highway bridges. Roughly 30.8% are rated “Good,” 67.7% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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.

Total bridges

130

Public highway bridges in Kit Carson County

Good condition

30.8%

40 of 130 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.7%

88 of 130 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.5%

2 of 130 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 64

Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 130 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30.8% (40)

Fair

67.7% (88)

Poor

1.5% (2)

Kit Carson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 374 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 187 crossings a day against 719 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 130 of 130 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

69.2% of Kit Carson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 130 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 30.8% 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 90.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COUNTY ROAD 31 over SPRING CREEK, built 1936, carries 339 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 374 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

6
1940s

3
1950s

9
1960s

60
1970s

19
1980s

14
1990s

14
2000s

2
2010s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 60 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 46.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 12 years older than the Colorado average of 1982.

How Kit Carson County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Colorado counties nearest Kit Carson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kit Carson County and the 5 Colorado counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Fremont County	137	19.7%	73.7%	6.6%	1966
Prowers County	137	17.5%	69.3%	13.1%	1974
Kit Carson County (this page)	130	30.8%	67.7%	1.5%	1970
Lincoln County	129	17.8%	74.4%	7.8%	1977
Montrose County	118	36.4%	61%	2.5%	1980
Baca County	106	21.7%	72.6%	5.7%	1963

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 Kit Carson 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 Kit Carson County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside CO (130 bridges here).

Bay County, FL · 130 bridges
Lowndes County, GA · 130 bridges
Whitfield County, GA · 130 bridges
Monroe County, IA · 130 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1970 here).

Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges

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

All 130 Good 40 Fair 88 Poor 2

Fair-condition bridges (88)

Sort:

Kit Carson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kit Carson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 374 vehicle crossings a day

69.2% of Kit Carson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 90.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kit Carson County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (88)

I 70 ML WBND

COUNTY ROAD 11

COUNTY ROAD 10

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML WBND

I 70 ML

I 70 ML WBND

COUNTY ROAD 23

SH 59 ML

SH 59 ML

COUNTY ROAD 29

COUNTY ROAD 29

COUNTY ROAD 31

US 385 ML

I 70 ML

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML

I 70 ML

I 70 VONA SPUR

I 70 ML WBND

I 70 ML EBND

COUNTY ROAD 60

US 385 ML

LOCAL RD. 60.30

I 70 ML WBND

SH 59 ML

SH 59 ML

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML WBND

US 385 ML

I 70 FRONTAGE RD

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML EBND

I 70 ML

COUNTY ROAD 44

US 385 ML

I 70 ML WBND

Related