County profile · official public datasets

Mitchell County, KS

260 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 59.6% rated Good, 36.9% Fair, 3.5% Poor.

260
Public bridges: 59.6%
Good condition: 3.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Mitchell County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.5%
Poor-condition share: 260
public highway bridges: 1962
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.

Mitchell County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Mitchell County ranks #44 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.5%). Mitchell County, Kansas contains 260 public highway bridges. Roughly 59.6% are rated “Good,” 36.9% “Fair,” and 3.5% “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

260

Public highway bridges in Mitchell County

Good condition

59.6%

155 of 260 rated 7-9

Fair condition

36.9%

96 of 260 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.5%

9 of 260 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#44 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 260 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

59.6% (155)

Fair

36.9% (96)

Poor

3.5% (9)

Mitchell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,232 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 137 crossings a day against 288 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 260 of 260 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

70.8% of Mitchell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

184 of the 260 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 59.6% 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 81.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RS 1640 over STREAM, built 1930, carries 1,000 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,232 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

1
1920s

17
1930s

57
1940s

19
1950s

24
1960s

56
1970s

20
1980s

23
1990s

7
2000s

16
2010s

13
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 57 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1962, 10 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Mitchell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Mitchell County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Rice County	262	48.9%	48.1%	3.1%	1977
Russell County	261	43.7%	54.4%	1.9%	1966
Mitchell County (this page)	260	59.6%	36.9%	3.5%	1962
Ellsworth County	259	48.6%	48.6%	2.7%	1970
Linn County	257	59.9%	35.4%	4.7%	1976
Brown County	256	48.4%	47.7%	3.9%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (260 bridges here).

Shoshone County, ID · 260 bridges
Jefferson County, IL · 260 bridges
Nash County, NC · 260 bridges
Trempealeau County, WI · 260 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1962 here).

Berks County, PA · avg 1962 · 667 bridges
Pecos County, TX · avg 1962 · 470 bridges
Bristol County, MA · avg 1962 · 384 bridges
Norfolk County, MA · avg 1962 · 343 bridges

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

All 260 Good 155 Fair 96 Poor 9

Good-condition bridges (155)

Sort:

Mitchell County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Mitchell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,232 vehicle crossings a day

70.8% of Mitchell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 81.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Mitchell 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 (155)

RS 1029

MINOR COL S9T

LOCAL RD. WM1

RS 1698

LOCAL RD. Q6a

LOCAL RD. T5A3

LOCAL RD.

RS 1862

RS 834

LOCAL RD. KF9

US24 HWY

RS 1941

RS 1640

LOCAL RD. E8A4

LOCAL RD. O5O

LOCAL RD. PG8

LOCAL RD. LT3

LOCAL RD. C2D

LOCAL RD. T6L

US24 HWY

RS 1034

RS 464

RS 987

LOCAL RD. L9B

US24 HWY

LOCAL RD. RT3

LOCAL RD. W85E

RS 464

RS 1685

LOCAL RD. LG8

LOCAL RD. O8H

E4W

LOCAL RD. H8X

LOCAL RD. E3V

RS 464

RS 398

K9 HWY

K9 HWY

LOCAL RD. C65A

VA8

LOCAL RD. VS4

LOCAL RD.

LOCAL RD. E1K

RS 463

RS 1675

RS 137

. TZ8

LOCAL RD. B1F

LOCAL RD. M1C

RS 1685

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