County profile · official public datasets

Harper County, KS

372 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25% rated Good, 65.3% Fair, 9.7% Poor.

372
Public bridges
25%
Good condition
9.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Harper 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.

90th
of 104 on Poor share
9.7%
Poor-condition share
372
public highway bridges
1965
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.

Harper County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Harper County ranks #90 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.7%). Harper County, Kansas contains 372 public highway bridges. Roughly 25% are rated “Good,” 65.3% “Fair,” and 9.7% “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

372

Public highway bridges in Harper County

Good condition

25%

93 of 372 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.3%

243 of 372 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.7%

36 of 372 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#90 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 372 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
25% (93)
Fair
65.3% (243)
Poor
9.7% (36)

Harper County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,726 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 104 crossings a day against 552 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 372 of 372 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

66.7% of Harper County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

248 of the 372 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 25% 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 49.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US160 HWY over SAND CREEK, built 1956, carries 1,840 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 36-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,726 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Harper County's bridges were built

372 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 61 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 7 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Harper County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Harper County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Kingman County 391 5.9%
Dickinson County 375 5.1%
Harvey County 372 7.3%
Harper County (this page) 372 9.7%
Saline County 369 1.9%
Nemaha County 359 9.5%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (372 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1965 here).

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

All 372 Good 93 Fair 243 Poor 36

All bridges (372)

LOCAL N.2-19

Poor

Over: BEAVER CREEK

2.0S 4.3W OF ANTHONY, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 10.9 t ADT: 10

SW 60 AVE

Poor

Over: STREAM

0.9N 2.0E OF WALDRON, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 11.7 t ADT: 5

SW 40 AVE

Poor

Over: STREAM

0.5S 1.5E OF SHOOK, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 11.7 t ADT: 40

SE 10 AVE

Poor

Over: WILDCAT CREEK

0.5S 1.0E OF SPRING, Harper, KS

Built 1940 Load: 11.7 t ADT: 10

NE 70 AVE

Poor

Over: SPRING CREEK

1.5N 1.0W OF DANVILLE, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 11.7 t ADT: 20

NW 10 RD

Poor

Over: BLUFF CREEK

1.0N 3.5W OF ANTHONY, Harper, KS

Built 1965 Load: 12.2 t ADT: 10

SW 20 Ave

Poor

Over: COPPER CREEK

4.0S 2.0W OF SPRING, Harper, KS

Built 1960 Load: 12.3 t ADT: 10

LOCAL CC.0-21.9

Poor

Over: SPRING BRANCH CREEK

0.1N 1.7E OF BLUFF CITY, Harper, KS

Built 1979 Load: 14.0 t ADT: 20

SW 50 Ave

Poor

Over: STREAM

2.0S 5.0W OF SPRING, Harper, KS

Built 1952 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 10

SE 20 Rd

Poor

Over: SILVER CREEK

3.3N 3.1W OF BLUFF CITY, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 10

NE 30 RD

Poor

Over: STREAM

2.0W OF FREEPORT, Harper, KS

Built 1930 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 80

NE 120 AVE

Poor

Over: STREAM

5.5N 4.0E OF DANVILLE, Harper, KS

Built 1948 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 10

RS 1485 SE 40 AVE

Poor

Over: WILDCAT CREEK

5.0W 1.0N OF BLUFF CITY, Harper, KS

Built 1935 Load: 16.2 t ADT: 55

NW 80 RD 9.0-G.4

Poor

Over: WEST BRANCH BLUFF CREEK

2.0N OF ATTICA, Harper, KS

Built 1968 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 10

NE 120 Rd

Poor

Over: STREAM

3.0N 1.0W OF DANVILLE, Harper, KS

Built 1970 Load: 18.0 t ADT: 30

RS 1485 40 Ave

Poor

Over: TRIB. TO SILVER CREEK

1.0N 6.0W OF FREEPORT, Harper, KS

Built 1925 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 66

NW 60 Rd

Poor

Over: CAMP CREEK

W EDGE OF ATTICA, Harper, KS

Built 1924 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 1,030

NW 170 Ave

Poor

Over: GENE CREEK

6.5W 1.0N OF ATTICA, Harper, KS

Built 1948 Load: 18.6 t ADT: 20

NW 110 Rd

Poor

Over: BLUFF CREEK

5.0N 0.4W OF ATTICA, Harper, KS

Built 1966 Load: 20.1 t ADT: 10

NW 110 AVE

Poor

Over: STREAM

3.0N OF CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Harper, KS

Built 1960 Load: 20.1 t ADT: 10

NW 130 Rd

Poor

Over: STREAM

4.0N 4.6W OF HARPER, Harper, KS

Built 2001 Load: 26.1 t ADT: 20

US160 HWY

Poor

Over: SAND CREEK

2.00 MI E NJCT K2, Harper, KS

Built 1956 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 1,840

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

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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.