County profile · official public datasets

Jewell County, KS

307 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.3% rated Good, 35.5% Fair, 7.2% Poor.

307
Public bridges: 57.3%
Good condition: 7.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

75th
of 104 on Poor share: 7.2%
Poor-condition share: 307
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.

Jewell County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jewell County ranks #75 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.2%). Jewell County, Kansas contains 307 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.3% are rated “Good,” 35.5% “Fair,” and 7.2% “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

307

Public highway bridges in Jewell County

Good condition

57.3%

176 of 307 rated 7-9

Fair condition

35.5%

109 of 307 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.2%

22 of 307 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#75 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 307 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

57.3% (176)

Fair

35.5% (109)

Poor

7.2% (22)

Jewell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,736 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 79 crossings a day against 136 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 307 of 307 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

45% of Jewell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

138 of the 307 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 60.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

K-14 HWY over MIDDLE BUFFALO CREEK, built 1941, carries 1,050 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,736 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

4
1920s

5
1930s

43
1940s

17
1950s

31
1960s

31
1970s

15
1980s

58
1990s

55
2000s

30
2010s

15
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 58 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1972) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Jewell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.2% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Jewell County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cloud County	314	52.5%	40.8%	6.7%	1961
Douglas County	314	78%	21.3%	0.6%	1989
Jewell County (this page)	307	57.3%	35.5%	7.2%	1972
Coffey County	305	75.4%	23.3%	1.3%	1984
Osage County	304	57.9%	35.9%	6.3%	1972
Pottawatomie County	303	48.2%	44.6%	7.3%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (307 bridges here).

Fannin County, TX · 307 bridges
Lamar County, TX · 307 bridges
Spokane County, WA · 307 bridges
Rockingham County, NH · 308 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 307 Good 176 Fair 109 Poor 22

Good-condition bridges (176)

Sort:

Jewell County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Jewell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,736 vehicle crossings a day

45% of Jewell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 60.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Jewell 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 (176)

LOCAL Y-21.1

K-128 HWY

LOCAL H-6.7

RS 339 BSN 320

RS 337 BSN 230

RS 340 BSN 360

RS 5020 BSN 890

LOCAL V.5 9.8

LOCAL C.2-17.0

LOCAL V-18.8

K128 HWY

RS 837 BSN 540

LOCAL N-9.9

RS 334 BSN 130

RS 340 BSN 370

LOCAL Y-22.5

RS 339 BSN 300

MINOR A.5-11

RS 334 BSN 150

RS 344 BSN 480

LOCAL Z-17.9

LOCAL E.5-21.0

RS 341 BSN 400

RS 339 BSN 310

RS 338 BSN 290

RS 837 BSN 550

RS 1446 BSN 670

RS 1446 BSN 680

US36 HWY

US36 HWY

LOCAL L.1-31.0

LOCAL B-2.3

RS 334 BSN 60

LOCAL N-3.1

RS 345 BSN 520

RS 1740 BSN 8

RS 1740 BSN 870

LOCAL J-30.9

LOCAL O-29.7

US-36 HWY

RS 343 BSN 460

MINOR V.6-2

MINOR U.5-3

LOCAL U-5.8

MINOR T-7.9

MINOR K-16.7

LOCAL M.1-19.7

RS 341 BSN 390

MINOR M-3.6

RS 1443 BSN 570

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