County profile · official public datasets

Gove County, KS

109 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45% rated Good, 53.2% Fair, 1.8% Poor.

109
Public bridges: 45%
Good condition: 1.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Gove County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 23%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.8%
Poor-condition share: 109
public highway bridges: 1968
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.

Gove County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Gove County ranks #24 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.8%). Gove County, Kansas contains 109 public highway bridges. Roughly 45% are rated “Good,” 53.2% “Fair,” and 1.8% “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

109

Public highway bridges in Gove County

Good condition

45%

49 of 109 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.2%

58 of 109 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.8%

2 of 109 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 109 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45% (49)

Fair

53.2% (58)

Poor

1.8% (2)

Gove County's Poor-condition bridges carry 220 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 110 crossings a day against 1,215 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 109 of 109 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

77.1% of Gove County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

84 of the 109 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 45% 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 63.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S ROAD (RS 272) over TRIB. TO HACKBERRY CREEK, built 1938, carries 140 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 220 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

11
1940s

3
1950s

19
1960s

49
1970s

3
1980s

4
1990s

3
2000s

8
2010s

6
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 49 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 45% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1968) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Gove County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Gove County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sheridan County	116	50.9%	39.7%	9.5%	1969
Comanche County	110	50.9%	48.2%	0.9%	1967
Hodgeman County	109	44%	54.1%	1.8%	1963
Gove County (this page)	109	45%	53.2%	1.8%	1968
Sherman County	105	69.5%	28.6%	1.9%	1969
Rawlins County	103	48.5%	36.9%	14.6%	1969

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (109 bridges here).

Mariposa County, CA · 109 bridges
Boone County, IL · 109 bridges
Trigg County, KY · 109 bridges
Dawson County, MT · 109 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1968 here).

Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges

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

All 109 Good 49 Fair 58 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (49)

Sort:

Gove County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Gove County's Poor-condition bridges carry 220 vehicle crossings a day

77.1% of Gove County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 63.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Gove 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 (49)

30 ROAD (RS 273)

40 ROAD

L ROAD

K23 HWY

S ROAD (RS 272)

72 ROAD (RS 897)

T ROAD (RS 272)

K23 HWY

50 ROAD (RS 271)

K23 HWY

S ROAD (RS 272)

I70 HWY EB WB

72 ROAD (RS 278)

K23 HWY

S ROAD (RS 272)

32 ROAD (RS 250)

59 ROAD (RS 896)

30 ROAD (RS 273)

16 ROAD

K23 HWY

63 ROAD (RS 1542)

CC ROAD

CC ROAD

I70 HWY WB

I70 HWY EB

I ROAD

22 ROAD

K-23 HWY

I70 HWY WB

I70 HWY EB

58 ROAD

Z ROAD (RS 1475)

82 ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

56 ROAD

58 ROAD

80 ROAD

K23 HWY

74 ROAD

30 ROAD (RS 273)

K23 HWY

I70 HWY EB

I70 HWY WB

52 ROAD

I70 HWY

62 ROAD (RS 1542)

Z ROAD

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