County profile · official public datasets

Ness County, KS

167 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 63.5% rated Good, 27.5% Fair, 9% Poor.

167
Public bridges: 63.5%
Good condition: 9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ness 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.

84th
of 104 on Poor share: 9%
Poor-condition share: 167
public highway bridges: 1961
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.

Ness County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ness County ranks #84 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9%). Ness County, Kansas contains 167 public highway bridges. Roughly 63.5% are rated “Good,” 27.5% “Fair,” and 9% “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

167

Public highway bridges in Ness County

Good condition

63.5%

106 of 167 rated 7-9

Fair condition

27.5%

46 of 167 rated 5-6

Poor condition

15 of 167 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#84 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 167 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

63.5% (106)

Fair

27.5% (46)

Poor

9% (15)

Ness County's Poor-condition bridges carry 700 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 47 crossings a day against 406 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 166 of 167 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

78.4% of Ness County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

131 of the 167 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 63.5% 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 11.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RD DD over TRIB. TO PAWNEE RIVER, built 1928, carries 80 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 700 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1920s

2
1930s

26
1940s

10
1950s

56
1960s

33
1970s

3
1980s

8
1990s

12
2000s

8
2010s

5
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 56 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1961, 11 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Ness County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1961 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ness County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Rush County	170	48.8%	43.5%	7.6%	1968
Rooks County	169	45%	53.3%	1.8%	1968
Ness County (this page)	167	63.5%	27.5%	9%	1961
Trego County	166	45.2%	50.6%	4.2%	1965
Pawnee County	164	37.2%	57.3%	5.5%	1957
Decatur County	159	45.3%	45.3%	9.4%	1976

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (167 bridges here).

Cherokee County, AL · 167 bridges
Garfield County, CO · 167 bridges
Mitchell County, IA · 167 bridges
Gratiot County, MI · 167 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1961 here).

Westchester County, NY · avg 1961 · 774 bridges
Tehama County, CA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
Berkshire County, MA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
Schuylkill County, PA · avg 1961 · 368 bridges

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

All 167 Good 106 Fair 46 Poor 15

All bridges (167)

Sort:

Ness County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ness County's Poor-condition bridges carry 700 vehicle crossings a day

78.4% of Ness County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 11.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ness 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

All bridges (167)

RD HH

RD 280

K96 HWY

US283 HWY

RD C

RD J

RD 140

RD HH

RD J

K4 HWY

K96 HWY

US283 HWY

RD 20

Field Entrance DD

RD 20

RD C

RD HH

K4 HWY

US283 HWY

US283 HWY

RD DD

RD HH

RD DD

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

K96 HWY

US283 HWY

US283 HWY

RD HH

RD J

RD DD

RD J

RD 190

RD 190

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

ENTRANCE LEFT

RD 20

RD J

RD F

RD HH

RD C

RD DD

RD 190

RD GG

RD 20

K96 HWY

K96 HWY

RD CC

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