Total bridges
227
Public highway bridges in Allen County
County profile · official public datasets
Allen County, KS
227 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.4% rated Good, 43.6% Fair, 11% Poor.
- 227
- Public bridges
- 45.4%
- Good condition
- 11%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Allen 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.
- 97th
- of 104 on Poor share
- 11%
- Poor-condition share
- 227
- public highway bridges
- 1959
- 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.
Allen County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Allen County ranks #97 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11%). Allen County, Kansas contains 227 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.4% are rated “Good,” 43.6% “Fair,” and 11% “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
45.4%
103 of 227 rated 7-9
Fair condition
43.6%
99 of 227 rated 5-6
Poor condition
11%
25 of 227 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#97 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 227 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 45.4% (103)
Fair 43.6% (99)
Poor 11% (25)
Allen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,925 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 77 crossings a day against 1,320 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 227 of 227 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
66.1% of Allen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
150 of the 227 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 45.4% 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 15.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RS 4 over BRANCH OF DEER CREEK, built 1935, carries 300 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 25-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,925 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Allen County's bridges were built
227 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
75 bridges
- 1940s 23
1940–1949
23 bridges
- 1950s 17
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s 22
1960–1969
22 bridges
- 1970s 13
1970–1979
13 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
34 bridges
- 1990s 15
1990–1999
15 bridges
- 2000s 12
2000–2009
12 bridges
- 2010s 6
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 75 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1959, 13 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.
How Allen County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Allen County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1959 against a peer-group mean of 1966 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenwood County | 235 | 24.7% | 54% | 21.3% | 1957 |
| Clay County | 231 | 51.9% | 42.9% | 5.2% | 1970 |
| Allen County (this page) | 227 | 45.4% | 43.6% | 11% | 1959 |
| Lincoln County | 225 | 33.3% | 56.4% | 10.2% | 1957 |
| Riley County | 224 | 56.7% | 37.9% | 5.4% | 1976 |
| Ford County | 223 | 50.2% | 49.8% | 0% | 1972 |
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 Allen 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 Allen County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (227 bridges here).
- Yell County, AR · 227 bridges
- McHenry County, IL · 227 bridges
- LaPorte County, IN · 227 bridges
- Rush County, IN · 227 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1959 here).
- Tulare County, CA · avg 1959 · 589 bridges
- Nassau County, NY · avg 1959 · 328 bridges
- Hampshire County, MA · avg 1959 · 259 bridges
- Noble County, OH · avg 1959 · 208 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (103)
LOCAL ROAD
GoodOver: U-169 HWY
1.01 MI. N. OLD U-169 HWY, Allen, KS
Built 1980 Load: 54.5 t ADT: 32
LOCAL RD 24.9-S.0
GoodOver: WOLFPEN CREEK
3.4E 1.0S OF ELSMORE, Allen, KS
Built 2020 Load: 57.7 t ADT: 10
RS 2 Georgia Rd
GoodOver: COAL CREEK
1.4E OF HUMBOLDT, Allen, KS
Built 2006 Load: 58.7 t ADT: 840
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.