County profile · official public datasets

Anderson County, KS

144 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.7% rated Good, 61.1% Fair, 4.2% Poor.

144
Public bridges: 34.7%
Good condition: 4.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Anderson County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 49%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.2%
Poor-condition share: 144
public highway bridges: 1956
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.

Anderson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Anderson County ranks #51 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.2%). Anderson County, Kansas contains 144 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.7% are rated “Good,” 61.1% “Fair,” and 4.2% “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

144

Public highway bridges in Anderson County

Good condition

34.7%

50 of 144 rated 7-9

Fair condition

61.1%

88 of 144 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.2%

6 of 144 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#51 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 144 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34.7% (50)

Fair

61.1% (88)

Poor

4.2% (6)

Anderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 459 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 77 crossings a day against 790 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 144 of 144 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

70.1% of Anderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

101 of the 144 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 34.7% 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 41.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

1600 Rd I.1-16.0 over FISH CREEK, built 1935, carries 190 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 459 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

1
1920s

16
1930s

39
1940s

12
1950s

14
1960s

12
1970s

8
1980s

16
1990s

10
2000s

5
2010s

6
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 39 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1956, 16 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

How Anderson County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Anderson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1956 against a peer-group mean of 1964 is 8 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Anderson County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Elk County	154	37%	55.8%	7.1%	1959
Anderson County (this page)	144	34.7%	61.1%	4.2%	1956
Woodson County	143	37.1%	54.5%	8.4%	1958
Graham County	142	52.8%	39.4%	7.7%	1968
Geary County	140	46.4%	43.6%	10%	1972
Chautauqua County	130	41.5%	47.7%	10.8%	1964

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 Anderson 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 Anderson County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (144 bridges here).

Muscatine County, IA · 144 bridges
Webster County, KY · 144 bridges
Muskegon County, MI · 144 bridges
Tishomingo County, MS · 144 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1956 here).

Philadelphia County, PA · avg 1956 · 585 bridges
Cochise County, AZ · avg 1956 · 501 bridges
Hampden County, MA · avg 1956 · 428 bridges
Stanislaus County, CA · avg 1956 · 386 bridges

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

All 144 Good 50 Fair 88 Poor 6

All bridges (144)

Sort:

Anderson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Anderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 459 vehicle crossings a day

70.1% of Anderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 41.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Anderson County compares with Kansas'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 (144)

1300 RD K.5-13.0

900 RD I.7-9.0

Ohio R.0-23.4

2400 Rd G.2-24.0

1100 Rd O.3-11.0

Colony Wel K.9-8.7

1000 RD J.4-10.0

Iowa/1150 J.1-11.4

Geary F.5-19.5

500 Rd Q.9-5.0

2100 RD C.0-21.0

200 Rd F.1-2.0

1300 RD J.3-13.0

Nevada P.8-21.2

200 Rd B.5-2.0

600 RD P.2-6.0

1000 Rd K.8-10.0

Georgia G.0-2.4

500 Rd N.3-5.0

Wilson W.5-16.8

Idaho H.0-9.8

Kiowa K.5-21.7

1100 Rd R.7-11.0

Vermont W.0-14.7

800 Rd I.5-8.0

1600 Rd E.5-16.0

Finney E.5-20.8

2030 Rd L.1-20.3

1600 Rd G.2-16.0

Nebraska P.0-12.0

Trego U.9-23.3

Wilson W.5-16.3

300 Rd J.9-3.3

Barton B.5-21.8

2000 Rd F.6-20.0

2500 Rd K.5-25.0

500 Rd O.2-5.0

Ohio R.0-11.7

300 Rd K.8-3.1

Barton Rd B.5-10.7

2300 Rd L.0-23.0

1100 Rd U.5-10.8

K31 HWY

US59 K31 HWY

Nebraska P.0-12.5

UTAH V.0-13.8

500 Rd V.2-5.0

K31 HWY

Texas U.0-9.9

K31 HWY

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