County profile · official public datasets

Barton County, KS

449 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.1% rated Good, 49.7% Fair, 0.2% Poor.

449
Public bridges: 50.1%
Good condition: 0.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Barton 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 14%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.2%
Poor-condition share: 449
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.

Barton County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Barton County ranks #15 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.2%). Barton County, Kansas contains 449 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.1% are rated “Good,” 49.7% “Fair,” and 0.2% “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

449

Public highway bridges in Barton County

Good condition

50.1%

225 of 449 rated 7-9

Fair condition

49.7%

223 of 449 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.2%

1 of 449 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 449 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.1% (225)

Fair

49.7% (223)

Poor

0.2% (1)

Barton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,750 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,750 crossings a day against 697 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 444 of 449 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

77.7% of Barton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

349 of the 449 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 50.1% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US281 K4 HWY over BLOOD CREEK DRAINAGE, built 1932, carries 1,750 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,750 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

21
1930s

87
1940s

59
1950s

95
1960s

60
1970s

40
1980s

32
1990s

21
2000s

23
2010s

8
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 95 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1959, 13 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Barton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1959 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 13 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Barton County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lyon County	492	65.7%	33.3%	1%	1972
Barton County (this page)	449	50.1%	49.7%	0.2%	1959
Marshall County	402	49.8%	39.6%	10.7%	1974
Kingman County	391	48.3%	45.8%	5.9%	1976
Dickinson County	375	47.7%	47.2%	5.1%	1974
Harper County	372	25%	65.3%	9.7%	1965

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (449 bridges here).

Washington County, AR · 449 bridges
Sioux County, IA · 449 bridges
Grady County, OK · 449 bridges
Dauphin County, PA · 449 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.

All 449 Good 225 Fair 223 Poor 1

Fair-condition bridges (223)

Sort:

Barton County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Barton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,750 vehicle crossings a day

77.7% of Barton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Barton 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

Fair-condition bridges (223)

SE 40 Rd

NE 130 Ave

K156 HWY

US281 HWY

NE 20 Ave

NE 110 Ave

NW 50 Ave

NW 90 Rd

NE 130 Ave

NW 60 Ave

NW 60 Ave

NW 60 Ave

NW 90 Rd

NW 90 Rd

N Washington Rd

NE 190 Rd

NE 90 Ave

W Barton County Rd

W Barton County Rd

NE 150 Rd

NW 40 Ave

NE 60 Ave

SW 30 Rd

NW 130 Ave

NW 130 Ave

SE 30 Rd

SE 130 Ave

NW 100 Rd

NE 80 Ave

SW 130 Ave

SW 60 Rd

NW 120 Ave

NW 70 Rd

SW 10 Rd

SW 100 Ave

SW 10 Rd

NE 90 Ave

NW 10 Rd

NW 80 Ave

NW 60 Rd

NW 65 Ave

NW 10 Rd

NW 50 Ave

NW 50 Ave

NW 50 Ave

NW 40 Ave

NW 210 Rd

NW 10 Ave

NW 10 Ave

NW 120 Rd

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