County profile · official public datasets

Crawford County, KS

297 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 52.9% rated Good, 39.7% Fair, 7.4% Poor.

297
Public bridges: 52.9%
Good condition: 7.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Crawford County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

79th
of 104 on Poor share: 7.4%
Poor-condition share: 297
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Crawford County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Crawford County ranks #79 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.4%). Crawford County, Kansas contains 297 public highway bridges. Roughly 52.9% are rated “Good,” 39.7% “Fair,” and 7.4% “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

297

Public highway bridges in Crawford County

Good condition

52.9%

157 of 297 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.7%

118 of 297 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.4%

22 of 297 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#79 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 297 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

52.9% (157)

Fair

39.7% (118)

Poor

7.4% (22)

Crawford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,793 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 127 crossings a day against 1,169 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 297 of 297 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

46.5% of Crawford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

138 of the 297 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 52.9% 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 22.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RS 177 over MIDDLE COW CREEK, built 1930, carries 640 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,793 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

17
1930s

53
1940s

16
1950s

21
1960s

20
1970s

70
1980s

20
1990s

26
2000s

35
2010s

13
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 70 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1969) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Crawford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.4% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Crawford County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jewell County	307	57.3%	35.5%	7.2%	1972
Coffey County	305	75.4%	23.3%	1.3%	1984
Osage County	304	57.9%	35.9%	6.3%	1972
Pottawatomie County	303	48.2%	44.6%	7.3%	1975
Crawford County (this page)	297	52.9%	39.7%	7.4%	1969
Ottawa County	295	40.3%	54.9%	4.7%	1962

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (297 bridges here).

Monroe County, MI · 297 bridges
Kingfisher County, OK · 297 bridges
Sarasota County, FL · 298 bridges
Rutherford County, NC · 298 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 297 Good 157 Fair 118 Poor 22

All bridges (297)

Sort:

Crawford County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Crawford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,793 vehicle crossings a day

46.5% of Crawford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 22.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Crawford 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 (297)

RS 1180

LOCAL RD. 13

RS 1180

LOCAL RD. 204

LOCAL RD. 18

MINOR COL 98

LOCAL RD. 49

LOCAL RD. 140

RS 113

MINOR COL 111

RS 174

RS 1138

LOCAL RD. 75

LOCAL RD. 157

LOCAL RD. 86

LOCAL RD. 68

LOCAL RD. 80

RS 1184

LOCAL RD. 181

RS 174

RS 170

RS 170

RS 171

LOCAL RD. 133

K7 HWY

K146 HWY

LOCAL RD. 197

LOCAL RD. 173

RS 177

LOCAL RD. 170

LOCAL RD. 28

K47 HWY

LOCAL RD. 110

LOCAL RD. 24

MINOR COL 36

LOCAL RD. 165

LOCAL RD. 59

K126 HWY

LOCAL RD. 187

LOCAL RD. 87

LOCAL RD. 97

LOCAL RD. 83

LOCAL RD. 12

RS 170

RS 171

RS 171

RS 171

RS 171

RS 174

RS 174

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