Total bridges
140
Public highway bridges in Geary County
County profile · official public datasets
Geary County, KS
140 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46.4% rated Good, 43.6% Fair, 10% Poor.
- 140
- Public bridges
- 46.4%
- Good condition
- 10%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Geary County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 91st
- of 104 on Poor share
- 10%
- Poor-condition share
- 140
- 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.
Geary County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Geary County ranks #91 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10%). Geary County, Kansas contains 140 public highway bridges. Roughly 46.4% are rated “Good,” 43.6% “Fair,” and 10% “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
46.4%
65 of 140 rated 7-9
Fair condition
43.6%
61 of 140 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10%
14 of 140 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#91 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 140 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 46.4% (65)
Fair 43.6% (61)
Poor 10% (14)
Geary County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,632 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,188 crossings a day against 4,160 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 140 of 140 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
59.3% of Geary County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
83 of the 140 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 46.4% 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 83% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
Washington Street over REPUBLICAN RIVER, built 1985, carries 13,800 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 16,632 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Geary County's bridges were built
140 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 9
1940–1949
9 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
40 bridges
- 1970s 8
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s 9
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 14
1990–1999
14 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
19 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1972) matches the Kansas average (1972).
How Geary County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Geary County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is 7 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson County | 144 | 34.7% | 61.1% | 4.2% | 1956 |
| Woodson County | 143 | 37.1% | 54.5% | 8.4% | 1958 |
| Graham County | 142 | 52.8% | 39.4% | 7.7% | 1968 |
| Geary County (this page) | 140 | 46.4% | 43.6% | 10% | 1972 |
| Chautauqua County | 130 | 41.5% | 47.7% | 10.8% | 1964 |
| Doniphan County | 129 | 50.4% | 41.1% | 8.5% | 1977 |
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 Geary 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 Geary County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (140 bridges here).
- Henry County, GA · 140 bridges
- Colfax County, NM · 140 bridges
- Harrison County, OH · 140 bridges
- Wyoming County, PA · 140 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.
Good-condition bridges (65)
I70 HWY EB
GoodOver: SMOKY HILL RIVER
2.04 MI E WJCT 40 BS EB, Geary, KS
Built 1960 Load: 49.9 t ADT: 14,350
ROOKS RANCH RD.
GoodOver: SWEDE CREEK
1.0N 13.0E JUNCTION CITY, Geary, KS
Built 2001 Load: 51.6 t ADT: 50
US40 BS
GoodOver: SMOKY HILL RIVER
1.32 MI E - WASHINGTON ST, Geary, KS
Built 1947 Load: 52.6 t ADT: 8,250
RS1695 K18 HWY
GoodOver: I70 HWY EB/WB
JCT K18/I70, Geary, KS
Built 1964 Load: 55.0 t ADT: 11,400
K-57 HWY
GoodOver: W. BR. HUMBOLDT CR. DR.
1.03 MI N OF MORRIS COLN, Geary, KS
Built 2009 Load: 57.2 t ADT: 315
US77 HWY
GoodOver: UP RAILROAD
.29 MI. S. JCT. I70/U77, Geary, KS
Built 2005 Load: 58.6 t ADT: 5,680
I-70 HWY WB
GoodOver: UP RAILROAD
0.27 MI E WJCT US40 BS WB, Geary, KS
Built 1992 Load: 58.9 t ADT: 13,500
K-57 HWY
GoodOver: DRY CREEK TRIBUTARY
6.1 MI S I-70/K-57 JCT, Geary, KS
Built 2005 Load: 63.5 t ADT: 215
US-77 HWY
GoodOver: REPUBLICAN RIVER
13.8 MI N OF GEARY SCOLN, Geary, KS
Built 1998 Load: 65.3 t ADT: 8,730
TULLY HILL RD.
GoodOver: MCDOWELL CREEK TRIB.
1.0N 8.0E OF GRANDVIEW, Geary, KS
Built 2002 Load: 67.6 t ADT: 10
McNEAL RD 19.7-U.6
GoodOver: W. BRANCH HUMBOLDT CREEK
6.0S 12.0E Junction City, Geary, KS
Built 2015 Load: 72.3 t ADT: 20
I70 HWY WB
GoodOver: US77 HIGHWAY
JCT US77/I70 WB, Geary, KS
Built 1959 Load: 74.4 t ADT: 8,738
I70 HWY EB
GoodOver: US77 HIGHWAY
JCT US77/I70 EB, Geary, KS
Built 1959 Load: 74.4 t ADT: 8,738
K-57 HWY
GoodOver: DRY CREEK DRAINAGE
8.86 MI SE I-70, Geary, KS
Built 1994 Load: 79.8 t ADT: 215
K-177 HWY
GoodOver: DEADMAN CREEK
11.18 MI N MORRIS COLN, Geary, KS
Built 2023 Load: 81.6 t ADT: 1,920
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.