County profile · official public datasets

Comanche County, KS

110 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.9% rated Good, 48.2% Fair, 0.9% Poor.

110
Public bridges: 50.9%
Good condition: 0.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Comanche 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 17%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.9%
Poor-condition share: 110
public highway bridges: 1967
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.

Comanche County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Comanche County ranks #18 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.9%). Comanche County, Kansas contains 110 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.9% are rated “Good,” 48.2% “Fair,” and 0.9% “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.

Total bridges

110

Public highway bridges in Comanche County

Good condition

50.9%

56 of 110 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.2%

53 of 110 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.9%

1 of 110 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#18 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 110 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.9% (56)

Fair

48.2% (53)

Poor

0.9% (1)

Comanche County's Poor-condition bridges carry 80 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 80 crossings a day against 219 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 110 of 110 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65.5% of Comanche County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

72 of the 110 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 50.9% 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

Q Road over CAVALRY CREEK, built 1974, carries 80 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 80 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

16
1940s

9
1950s

13
1960s

21
1970s

12
1980s

9
1990s

10
2000s

9
2010s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 21 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 5 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Comanche County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.9% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Comanche County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sheridan County	116	50.9%	39.7%	9.5%	1969
Comanche County (this page)	110	50.9%	48.2%	0.9%	1967
Gove County	109	45%	53.2%	1.8%	1968
Hodgeman County	109	44%	54.1%	1.8%	1963
Sherman County	105	69.5%	28.6%	1.9%	1969
Rawlins County	103	48.5%	36.9%	14.6%	1969

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (110 bridges here).

Lincoln County, AR · 110 bridges
Sharp County, AR · 110 bridges
Jerome County, ID · 110 bridges
Powell County, KY · 110 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1967 here).

Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges

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

All 110 Good 56 Fair 53 Poor 1

Fair-condition bridges (53)

Sort:

Comanche County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Comanche County's Poor-condition bridges carry 80 vehicle crossings a day

65.5% of Comanche County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Comanche 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 (53)

L Road

X Road

W Road

W Road

W Road

17 Road

F Road

F RD

D Avenue

W Road

X Road

22nd Road

L Road

E Road

19 Road

4th Road

X Road

Avenue J

18 Road

W Road

Avenue A

M Road

D Avenue

US160 HWY

4th Road

6 Road

L Road

9 Road

15 Road

US183 HWY

Road F

4th Road

20th Road

E Road

S Road

11 Road

E Avenue

V Road

Q Road

11 Road

C Road

12 Road

Q Road

Avenue A

E Road

W Road

I Road

RS 154 at 4th Road

E Road

US160 HWY

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