County profile · official public datasets

McPherson County, KS

586 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 66.6% rated Good, 32.8% Fair, 0.7% Poor.

586
Public bridges: 66.6%
Good condition: 0.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

McPherson County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.7%
Poor-condition share: 586
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

McPherson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McPherson County ranks #17 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.7%). McPherson County, Kansas contains 586 public highway bridges. Roughly 66.6% are rated “Good,” 32.8% “Fair,” and 0.7% “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

586

Public highway bridges in McPherson County

Good condition

66.6%

390 of 586 rated 7-9

Fair condition

32.8%

192 of 586 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.7%

4 of 586 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#17 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 586 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

66.6% (390)

Fair

32.8% (192)

Poor

0.7% (4)

McPherson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,671 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,668 crossings a day against 870 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 586 of 586 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37.7% of McPherson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

221 of the 586 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 66.6% 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 68.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I135 US81 NB over UP RAILROAD, built 1969, carries 7,271 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 10,671 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

4
1920s

8
1930s

26
1940s

11
1950s

38
1960s

86
1970s

113
1980s

146
1990s

54
2000s

46
2010s

42
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 146 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 7 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest McPherson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for McPherson County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sumner County	659	50.2%	47.2%	2.6%	1978
Butler County	591	59.2%	34.7%	6.1%	1966
McPherson County (this page)	586	66.6%	32.8%	0.7%	1979
Reno County	573	51.8%	42.1%	6.1%	1980
Shawnee County	563	62.9%	34.1%	3%	1981
Lyon County	492	65.7%	33.3%	1%	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 McPherson 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 McPherson County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (586 bridges here).

Philadelphia County, PA · 585 bridges
Knox County, TN · 588 bridges
Tulare County, CA · 589 bridges
Dane County, WI · 590 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
Madison County, IL · avg 1979 · 523 bridges

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

All 586 Good 390 Fair 192 Poor 4

Good-condition bridges (390)

Sort:

McPherson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

McPherson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,671 vehicle crossings a day

37.7% of McPherson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 68.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How McPherson 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 (390)

14TH. AVE.

PLUM AVE.

DAKOTA RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

PUEBLO RD.

EISENHOWER RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

EISENHOWER RD.

I135 US81 NB-SB

I135 US81 NB-SB

RS 1065 PIONEER

CIMARRON RD.

RS 2043

CHISHOLM RD.

LIMESTONE RD.

MOCCASIN RD.

SMOKY VALLEY RD.

12TH. AVE.

NAVAHO RD.

MOHAWK RD.

NAVAHO RD.

13TH. AVE.

SIOUX RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

CHEYENNE RD.

25TH. AVE.

25TH. AVE.

RAINBOW RD.

WHEATRIDGE RD.

ARAPAHO RD.

29TH. AVE.

ARAPAHO RD.

APACHE RD.

US56 HWY

RS 2043

FRONTIER RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

CIMARRON RD.

PUEBLO RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

7TH. AVE.

BUFFALO TRAIL

ARAPAHO RD.

BUCKSKIN RD.

US56 HWY

28TH. AVE.

CIMARRON RD.

12TH. AVE.

DAKOTA RD.

20TH. & MOCCASIN

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