County profile · official public datasets

Finney County, KS

78 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 67.9% rated Good, 29.5% Fair, 2.6% Poor.

78
Public bridges: 67.9%
Good condition: 2.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Finney County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 30%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.6%
Poor-condition share: 78
public highway bridges: 1972
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.

Finney County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Finney County ranks #31 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Finney County, Kansas contains 78 public highway bridges. Roughly 67.9% are rated “Good,” 29.5% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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

Public highway bridges in Finney County

Good condition

67.9%

53 of 78 rated 7-9

Fair condition

29.5%

23 of 78 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.6%

2 of 78 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 78 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

67.9% (53)

Fair

29.5% (23)

Poor

2.6% (2)

Finney County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,739 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 870 crossings a day against 2,739 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 78 of 78 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.7% of Finney County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

45 of the 78 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 67.9% 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 98.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

K156 HWY over PAWNEE RIVER DRAINAGE, built 1932, carries 1,720 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 1,739 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

14
1950s

12
1960s

10
1970s

14
1980s

7
1990s

5
2000s

7
2010s

8
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1972) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Finney County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1966 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Finney County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Meade County	84	73.8%	26.2%	0%	1969
Thomas County	82	63.4%	34.1%	2.4%	1966
Finney County (this page)	78	67.9%	29.5%	2.6%	1972
Kearny County	72	41.7%	58.3%	0%	1968
Edwards County	69	26.1%	69.6%	4.3%	1970
Hamilton County	68	88.2%	11.8%	0%	1955

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (78 bridges here).

Winston County, AL · 78 bridges
Marion County, FL · 78 bridges
Bryan County, GA · 78 bridges
Macon County, GA · 78 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1972 here).

Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges

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

All 78 Good 53 Fair 23 Poor 2

All bridges (78)

Sort:

Finney County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Finney County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,739 vehicle crossings a day

57.7% of Finney County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 98.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Finney 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 (78)

LOCAL CHMELKA RD.

LOCAL ANDERSON RD

RS 380 (BYLER RD)

RS 1671 Holcomb Ln

LOCAL ROCKPIT RD.

MANSFIELD RD

LOCAL HAMIL RD.

community road

US83 HWY

US83 HWY

K23 HWY

EB US50 HWY

WB US50 HWY

LOCAL HAMIL RD.

FARMLAND ROAD

US-50/US-83 HWYS

LOCAL SHERLOCK RD

WB US50 HWY

EB US50 HWY

MARY STREET

US50 HWY

US-50/US-83 HWY

SCHULMAN AVE.

RS 245-BIG LOWE RD

LOCAL LAKE RD.

LOCAL LAKE RD.

K156 HWY

LOCAL ZIEM GRADE

Related