County profile · official public datasets

Norton County, KS

244 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.7% rated Good, 44.3% Fair, 2% Poor.

244
Public bridges: 53.7%
Good condition: 2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 28%
lowest Poor share in state: 2%
Poor-condition share: 244
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Norton County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Norton County ranks #29 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Norton County, Kansas contains 244 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.7% are rated “Good,” 44.3% “Fair,” and 2% “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

244

Public highway bridges in Norton County

Good condition

53.7%

131 of 244 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.3%

108 of 244 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5 of 244 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#29 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 244 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53.7% (131)

Fair

44.3% (108)

Poor

2% (5)

Norton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 140 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 28 crossings a day against 488 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 243 of 244 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.5% of Norton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

94 of the 244 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 53.7% 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 42.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Rd. H over BUFFALO CREEK, built 1972, carries 60 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 140 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

2
1930s

20
1940s

11
1950s

20
1960s

30
1970s

18
1980s

28
1990s

43
2000s

60
2010s

9
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 60 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 8 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Norton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Norton County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jackson County	246	36.2%	56.9%	6.9%	1982
Osborne County	244	52.5%	40.2%	7.4%	1967
Norton County (this page)	244	53.7%	44.3%	2%	1980
Wabaunsee County	242	36.8%	52.9%	10.3%	1963
Barber County	241	44.8%	53.9%	1.2%	1974
Leavenworth County	241	61%	36.1%	2.9%	1981

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (244 bridges here).

Spencer County, IN · 244 bridges
Allegan County, MI · 244 bridges
Seward County, NE · 244 bridges
Alamance County, NC · 244 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 244 Good 131 Fair 108 Poor 5

All bridges (244)

Sort:

Norton County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Norton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 140 vehicle crossings a day

38.5% of Norton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 42.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Norton 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 (244)

Rd. CC

Rd. BB

RS 844 (Rd. E9)

Rd. B

Rd. W9

Rd. W11

Rd. K

Rd. E13

RS 718 (Rd. W5)

Rd. E1

Rd. B

Rd. E6

K383 HWY

RS 839 (Rd. W11)

RS 848 (Rd. E8)

Rd. W15

RS 1953 (Rd. E3)

RS 502 (Rd. E9)

RS 843 (Rd. E2)

RS 844 (Rd. E9)

Rd. E9

Rd. G

Rd. B

Rd. BB

Rd. O

Rd. E5

RS 502 (KQNK Rd.)

RS 1824 (Rd. W12)

Rd. K

Rd. O

Rd. DD

Rd. E7

Rd. E8

RS 839 (Rd. W11)

RS 5000 (Rd. W2)

RS 5000 (Rd. W2)

Rd. H

Taft St.

Rd. E8

RS 849 (Rd. E12)

RS 281 (Rd. W6)

RS 281 (Rd. W6)

RS 844 (Rd. E9)

Rd. W

Rd. E13

K9 HWY

K383 HWY

Rd. CC

W Lincoln St.

RS 847 (Rd. E3)

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