County profile · official public datasets

Harvey County, KS

372 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.3% rated Good, 35.5% Fair, 7.3% Poor.

372
Public bridges: 57.3%
Good condition: 7.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Harvey County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

76th
of 104 on Poor share: 7.3%
Poor-condition share: 372
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Harvey County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Harvey County ranks #76 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.3%). Harvey County, Kansas contains 372 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.3% are rated “Good,” 35.5% “Fair,” and 7.3% “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 Harvey County

Good condition

57.3%

213 of 372 rated 7-9

Fair condition

35.5%

132 of 372 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.3%

27 of 372 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#76 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

57.3% (213)

Fair

35.5% (132)

Poor

7.3% (27)

Harvey County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,397 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 459 crossings a day against 2,593 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.

47.8% of Harvey County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

178 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 57.3% 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 71.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 50 HWY over MERIDAN AVE. BNSF RR, built 1975, carries 8,850 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 27-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 12,397 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

16
1930s

22
1940s

13
1950s

43
1960s

59
1970s

111
1980s

33
1990s

23
2000s

30
2010s

19
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 111 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1971) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Harvey County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Harvey County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Kingman County	391	48.3%	45.8%	5.9%	1976
Dickinson County	375	47.7%	47.2%	5.1%	1974
Harper County	372	25%	65.3%	9.7%	1965
Harvey County (this page)	372	57.3%	35.5%	7.3%	1971
Saline County	369	68.6%	29.5%	1.9%	1971
Nemaha County	359	41.5%	49%	9.5%	1986

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 Harvey 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 Harvey 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).

Clinton County, IA · 372 bridges
Johnson County, IA · 372 bridges
Wharton County, TX · 372 bridges
Solano County, CA · 373 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 372 Good 213 Fair 132 Poor 27

Good-condition bridges (213)

Sort:

Harvey County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Harvey County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,397 vehicle crossings a day

47.8% of Harvey County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 71.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Harvey 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 (213)

N Osage Rd

E 1st St RS 86

NW 36th St

S Willow Lake Rd.

W 1st St

15-B.6 LOCAL

23-O.4 LOCAL

I-135 HWY SB

W. Dutch Ave.

Q-12.6 RS 306

11-P.5 RS 307

O-23.4 RS 875

K-19.1 (FAU 4108)

O-16.7 RS 875

C-1.2 LOCAL

2-O.95 LOCAL

R-6.7 LOCAL

7-D.9 MINOR

7-C.9 MINOR

7-A.2 MINOR

O-7.1 MINOR

D-7.3 LOCAL

P-15.6 LOCAL

L-22.5 MINOR

L-30.1 LOCAL

D-17.2 LOCAL

LOCAL ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

LOCAL ROAD

NW 24th St.

14-J.5 LOCAL

SE 96th St

Broadway Street

32-L.5 RS 2046

US-50 HWY

N Essex Heights Rd

NW 60th St.

SW 24th St

I-135 HWY SB

I-135 HWY NB

I-135 HIGHWAY

N Harvest Hill Rd

NW 48th St.

SW 36th St

N Spring Lake Rd

F-12.2 LOCAL

S Rock Rd

I-135 SOUTHBOUND

I-135 NORTHBOUND

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