Total bridges
154
Public highway bridges in Elk County
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.
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.
When Elk County's bridges were built
154 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s
1910–1919
13 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
15 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
15 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
13 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
16 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
18 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s 8
1980–1989
8 bridges
- 1990s 10
1990–1999
10 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
14 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (57)
Junebug
GoodOver: GAME CREEK
1.0S 1.9E OF HOWARD, Elk, KS
Built 1993 Load: 50.7 t ADT: 145
Limestone
GoodOver: ROCK CREEK
0.9W OF HOWARD, Elk, KS
Built 2004 Load: 51.6 t ADT: 110
US-160 HWY
GoodOver: WILDCAT CREEK DRAINAGE
9.41 MI E OF COWLEY CO, Elk, KS
Built 2004 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 780
Road 28
GoodOver: TRIB. TO INDIAN CREEK
2.1S OF FALL RIVER, Elk, KS
Built 2004 Load: 57.6 t ADT: 240
Road 31
GoodOver: COON CREEK
5.0S 3.0E OF FALL RIVER, Elk, KS
Built 1993 Load: 58.5 t ADT: 20
US-160 HWY
GoodOver: CANEY RIVER DRAINAGE
7.71 MI E OF COWLEY CO., Elk, KS
Built 2004 Load: 63.5 t ADT: 760
Road 28
GoodOver: TRIB LITTLE INDIAN CREEK
5.0S 0.2W OF FALL RIVER, Elk, KS
Built 1998 Load: 90.6 t ADT: 25
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.