County profile · official public datasets

Morris County, KS

179 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 33% rated Good, 54.2% Fair, 12.8% Poor.

179
Public bridges: 33%
Good condition: 12.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

100th
of 104 on Poor share: 12.8%
Poor-condition share: 179
public highway bridges: 1967
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.

Morris County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Morris County ranks #100 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.8%). Morris County, Kansas contains 179 public highway bridges. Roughly 33% are rated “Good,” 54.2% “Fair,” and 12.8% “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

179

Public highway bridges in Morris County

Good condition

33%

59 of 179 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.2%

97 of 179 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.8%

23 of 179 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#100 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 179 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

33% (59)

Fair

54.2% (97)

Poor

12.8% (23)

Morris County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,991 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 87 crossings a day against 380 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 179 of 179 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55.3% of Morris County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

99 of the 179 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 33% 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 37.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

K177 HWY over FOUR MILE CREEK, built 1953, carries 740 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 23-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,991 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

2
1920s

4
1930s

36
1940s

14
1950s

15
1960s

17
1970s

17
1980s

28
1990s

15
2000s

16
2010s

8
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 5 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Morris County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Morris County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chase County	189	48.1%	45%	6.9%	1964
Morris County (this page)	179	33%	54.2%	12.8%	1967
Rush County	170	48.8%	43.5%	7.6%	1968
Rooks County	169	45%	53.3%	1.8%	1968
Ness County	167	63.5%	27.5%	9%	1961
Trego County	166	45.2%	50.6%	4.2%	1965

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (179 bridges here).

Graham County, AZ · 179 bridges
Thomas County, GA · 179 bridges
Carroll County, IL · 179 bridges
Fremont County, IA · 179 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1967 here).

Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges

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

All 179 Good 59 Fair 97 Poor 23

Poor-condition bridges (23)

Sort:

Morris County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Morris County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,991 vehicle crossings a day

55.3% of Morris County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 37.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Morris 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

Poor-condition bridges (23)

LOCAL 72 V.0-1520

LOCAL 55 Q.9-1600

LOCAL 28 K.0-1400

LOCAL 51 R.2-2000

LOCAL 34 K.0-2060

RS 856 DD.0 - 400

LOCAL 18 H.0-560

RS 193 G.0 - 2710

LOCAL 99 Y.0-190

LOCAL 70 U.5-640

RS 93 BB.0 - 2160

LOCAL 21 H.0-980

K177 HWY

LOCAL 59 M.5-570

LOCAL 5 F.0-1640

MINOR 71 U.9-1400

LOCAL 60 M.0-440

LOCAL 7 C.4-1600

RS 822 G.0 - 1220

LOCAL 37 H.2-2700

LOCAL 106 L.4-1850

LOCAL 32 H.0-1880

LOCAL 69 V.0-510

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