Total bridges
256
Public highway bridges in Brown County
County profile · official public datasets
Brown County, KS
256 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.4% rated Good, 47.7% Fair, 3.9% Poor.
- 256
- Public bridges
- 48.4%
- Good condition
- 3.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Brown County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 45%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 256
- public highway bridges
- 1974
- 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.
Brown County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Brown County ranks #47 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Brown County, Kansas contains 256 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.4% are rated “Good,” 47.7% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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
48.4%
124 of 256 rated 7-9
Fair condition
47.7%
122 of 256 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.9%
10 of 256 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 256 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 48.4% (124)
Fair 47.7% (122)
Poor 3.9% (10)
Brown County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,961 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 196 crossings a day against 699 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 256 of 256 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
43.4% of Brown County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
111 of the 256 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 48.4% 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 55.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RS 2085 240th St. over UNNAMED STREAM, built 1930, carries 1,096 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,961 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Brown County's bridges were built
256 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 8
1920–1929
8 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
29 bridges
- 1940s 12
1940–1949
12 bridges
- 1950s 13
1950–1959
13 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
39 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
23 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
52 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
38 bridges
- 2000s 19
2000–2009
19 bridges
- 2010s 18
2010–2019
18 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 52 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Kansas average (1972).
How Brown County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Brown County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice County | 262 | 48.9% | 48.1% | 3.1% | 1977 |
| Russell County | 261 | 43.7% | 54.4% | 1.9% | 1966 |
| Mitchell County | 260 | 59.6% | 36.9% | 3.5% | 1962 |
| Ellsworth County | 259 | 48.6% | 48.6% | 2.7% | 1970 |
| Linn County | 257 | 59.9% | 35.4% | 4.7% | 1976 |
| Brown County (this page) | 256 | 48.4% | 47.7% | 3.9% | 1974 |
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 Brown 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 Brown County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (256 bridges here).
- Clayton County, IA · 256 bridges
- Chemung County, NY · 256 bridges
- Chenango County, NY · 256 bridges
- Essex County, NY · 256 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1974 here).
- Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
- Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
- Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
- Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (10)
IRR BIA RTE 1006
PoorOver: DELAWARE RIVER
0.6KM W OF 130 & FOXTAIL, Brown, KS
Built 1970 Load: 14.4 t ADT: 150
RS 2085 240th St.
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
0.9E OF HIAWATHA, Brown, KS
Built 1930 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 1,096
LOCAL RD. 28
PoorOver: PONY CREEK
1.5N 3.3W OF RESERVE, Brown, KS
Built 1925 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 50
RS 60 170th St.
PoorOver: SQUAW CREEK
0.4S 1.9W OF POWHATTAN, Brown, KS
Built 1925 Load: 15.4 t ADT: 320
Tumbleweed Rd.
PoorOver: FOX CREEK
4.0W 0.7N OF HIGHLAND, Brown, KS
Built 1915 Load: 16.1 t ADT: 25
Coralberry Rd.
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
2.4S OF FAIRVIEW, Brown, KS
Built 1930 Load: 20.5 t ADT: 60
220th St.
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
1.0S OF FAIRVIEW, Brown, KS
Built 1930 Load: 25.4 t ADT: 50
IRR BIA RTE 1008
PoorOver: TRASH CREEK
0.8KM W GOLDFINCH & 140, Brown, KS
Built 1985 Load: 32.6 t ADT: 150
IRR BIA RTE 1019
PoorOver: BRUSH CREEK
0.1KM N K20 & COYOTE, Brown, KS
Built 1987 Load: 32.6 t ADT: 30
Sagebrush Rd.
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
6.6E 1.8N OF HIAWATHA, Brown, KS
Built 1982 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 30
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.