County profile · official public datasets

Douglas County, KS

314 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 78% rated Good, 21.3% Fair, 0.6% Poor.

314
Public bridges: 78%
Good condition: 0.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Douglas County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 15%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.6%
Poor-condition share: 314
public highway bridges: 1989
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.

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Douglas County ranks #16 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.6%). Douglas County, Kansas contains 314 public highway bridges. Roughly 78% are rated “Good,” 21.3% “Fair,” and 0.6% “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

314

Public highway bridges in Douglas County

Good condition

78%

245 of 314 rated 7-9

Fair condition

21.3%

67 of 314 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.6%

2 of 314 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 314 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

78% (245)

Fair

21.3% (67)

Poor

0.6% (2)

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,300 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 14,300 crossings a day against 5,343 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 313 of 314 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

18.2% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

57 of the 314 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 78% 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

K-10 HWY EASTBOUND over WAKARUSA RIV & LOC RD, built 1977, carries 14,300 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 14,300 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

15
1950s

14
1960s

11
1970s

75
1980s

47
1990s

26
2000s

39
2010s

80
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 80 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1989, 17 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Douglas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1989 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 16 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Douglas County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cherokee County	317	42.6%	53%	4.4%	1967
Wyandotte County	315	62.5%	34.6%	2.9%	1980
Cloud County	314	52.5%	40.8%	6.7%	1961
Douglas County (this page)	314	78%	21.3%	0.6%	1989
Jewell County	307	57.3%	35.5%	7.2%	1972
Coffey County	305	75.4%	23.3%	1.3%	1984

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (314 bridges here).

Jackson County, AL · 314 bridges
Franklin County, MA · 314 bridges
Audrain County, MO · 314 bridges
Durham County, NC · 314 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1989 here).

Harris County, TX · avg 1989 · 4,029 bridges
Mecklenburg County, NC · avg 1989 · 746 bridges
Buffalo County, NE · avg 1989 · 459 bridges
Brazos County, TX · avg 1989 · 370 bridges

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

All 314 Good 245 Fair 67 Poor 2

Fair-condition bridges (67)

Sort:

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,300 vehicle crossings a day

18.2% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Douglas 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 (67)

LOCAL 19.0N-16.08E

RS 1370

LOCAL 7.75N-17.5E

LOCAL 20.58N-15.0E

RS 1273

RS 1370

RS 2101

RS 1370

MINOR 20.01N-8.9E

LOCAL 19.0N-15.9E

K-10 HWY WESTBOUND

K-10 HWY EASTBOUND

LOCAL 2.0N-14.8E

MINOR 7.0N-23.3E

RS 1372

Bob Billings Pkwy

LOCAL 9.9N-0.9E

13th Street

Local 9.33N-13.02E

LOCAL 2.01N-11.0E

MINOR 20.44N-7.45E

LOCAL 6.0N-0.49E

LOCAL 1.5N-11.4E

LOCAL 20.6N-5.0E

LOC 11.08N-18.83E

27th Street

Quail Creek Drive

Brush Creek Drive

RS 212

LOCAL 15.45N-1.0E

LOCAL 5.0N-7.11E

LOCAL 1.75N-6.82E

RS 209

LOCAL 7.88N-16.79E

RS 209

CHURCH STREET

RS 1374

I-70 HWY WB (KTA)

I-70 HWY EB (KTA)

LOCAL 19.8N-7.2E

LOCAL 11.0N-16.4E

LOCAL 12.41N-11.5E

RS 1373

RS 1375

LOCAL 19.69N-3.0E

I-70 HWY EB (KTA)

LOCAL 11.7N-17.5E

LOCAL 11.0N-13.3E

LOCAL 12.67N-12.0E

RS 212

Related