County profile · official public datasets

Elk County, KS

154 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37% rated Good, 55.8% Fair, 7.1% Poor.

154
Public bridges: 37%
Good condition: 7.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Elk County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

74th
of 104 on Poor share: 7.1%
Poor-condition share: 154
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.

Elk County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Elk County ranks #74 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Elk County, Kansas contains 154 public highway bridges. Roughly 37% are rated “Good,” 55.8% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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

154

Public highway bridges in Elk County

Good condition

37%

57 of 154 rated 7-9

Fair condition

55.8%

86 of 154 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.1%

11 of 154 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#74 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 154 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37% (57)

Fair

55.8% (86)

Poor

7.1% (11)

Elk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 345 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 31 crossings a day against 340 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 154 of 154 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65.6% of Elk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

101 of the 154 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 37% 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 30.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Montgomery/25.5 St over TRIB. TO ELK RIVER, built 1968, carries 105 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 345 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

13
1920s

15
1930s

15
1940s

13
1950s

16
1960s

18
1970s

26
1980s

8
1990s

10
2000s

14
2010s

3
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1959, 13 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Elk County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1959 against a peer-group mean of 1962 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Elk County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Trego County	166	45.2%	50.6%	4.2%	1965
Pawnee County	164	37.2%	57.3%	5.5%	1957
Decatur County	159	45.3%	45.3%	9.4%	1976
Elk County (this page)	154	37%	55.8%	7.1%	1959
Anderson County	144	34.7%	61.1%	4.2%	1956
Woodson County	143	37.1%	54.5%	8.4%	1958

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (154 bridges here).

Choctaw County, AL · 154 bridges
Arkansas County, AR · 154 bridges
Kootenai County, ID · 154 bridges
Madison County, KY · 154 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 154 Good 57 Fair 86 Poor 11

Good-condition bridges (57)

Sort:

Elk County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Elk County's Poor-condition bridges carry 345 vehicle crossings a day

65.6% of Elk County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 30.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Elk 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

Good-condition bridges (57)

Road 19

Road 13

Road 28A

Road 24A

Limestone

Rock

US160 HWY

Road 19

Limestone

US160 HWY

25.5/Montgomery

Oxen

Road 21

Dove

Quail

Road 4

Grain

Road 23

Fling

Limestone

US160 HWY

Killdeer

Turkey

Road 20

Quail Road

Road 27

Road 27

Road 14

Road 28

US160 HWY

US-160 HWY

US160 K99 HWY

US-160 HWY

K99 HWY

Limestone

K99 HWY

US 160 HWY

US 160 HWY

Road 11

Road 7

K99 HWY

K99 HWY

US-160 HIGHWAY

Road 27

18-C.9 MINOR

US-160 HWY

US-160 HWY

US-160 HWY

US-160 HIGHWAY

Road 27

Related