County profile · official public datasets

Kiowa County, KS

90 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.6% rated Good, 51.1% Fair, 3.3% Poor.

90
Public bridges: 45.6%
Good condition: 3.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Kiowa County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 39%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.3%
Poor-condition share: 90
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Kiowa County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kiowa County ranks #41 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.3%). Kiowa County, Kansas contains 90 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.6% are rated “Good,” 51.1% “Fair,” and 3.3% “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

Public highway bridges in Kiowa County

Good condition

45.6%

41 of 90 rated 7-9

Fair condition

51.1%

46 of 90 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.3%

3 of 90 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#41 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 90 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45.6% (41)

Fair

51.1% (46)

Poor

3.3% (3)

Kiowa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,120 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 373 crossings a day against 1,005 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 90 of 90 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55.6% of Kiowa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 90 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 45.6% 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 92.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US183 HWY over E F RATTLESNAKE CR, built 1929, carries 1,040 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,120 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

5
1940s

3
1950s

25
1960s

14
1970s

8
1980s

25
1990s

5
2000s

2
2010s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 25 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1969) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Kiowa County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.3% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kiowa County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Clark County	102	69.6%	27.5%	2.9%	1968
Cheyenne County	100	47%	47%	6%	1971
Kiowa County (this page)	90	45.6%	51.1%	3.3%	1969
Meade County	84	73.8%	26.2%	0%	1969
Thomas County	82	63.4%	34.1%	2.4%	1966
Finney County	78	67.9%	29.5%	2.6%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (90 bridges here).

Greenlee County, AZ · 90 bridges
Clay County, FL · 90 bridges
Taylor County, FL · 90 bridges
Monroe County, GA · 90 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 90 Good 41 Fair 46 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (46)

Sort:

Kiowa County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kiowa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,120 vehicle crossings a day

55.6% of Kiowa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 92.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kiowa 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

Fair-condition bridges (46)

Rd 35

Rd F

RS 218 - 10 Rd

Olive Street

Rd 37

Rd J

RS 1527 - Rd K

Rd K

RS 966 - Rd 39

Rd N

Rd 5

Rd X

Rd J

Rd X

RS 32 - Dodge Ave

RS 32 - T Rd

US-400 HWY

Rd 33

Rd 19

US183 HWY

Rd 6

Rd Q

Rd 21

Rd 33

Rd 35

RS 1975 - Rd M

Rd 33

Rd C

Rd 33

RS 963 - Rd 11

Rd N

Rd N

Rd 53

US183 HWY

Rd D

Rd G

Rd L

RS 1365 - Rd Y

US183 HWY

Rd M

Rd 21

US183 HWY

US183 HWY

Rd H

US-400 HWY

US-400 HWY

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