County profile · official public datasets

Ottawa County, KS

295 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40.3% rated Good, 54.9% Fair, 4.7% Poor.

295
Public bridges: 40.3%
Good condition: 4.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ottawa 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.

58th
of 104 on Poor share: 4.7%
Poor-condition share: 295
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.

Ottawa County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ottawa County ranks #58 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.7%). Ottawa County, Kansas contains 295 public highway bridges. Roughly 40.3% are rated “Good,” 54.9% “Fair,” and 4.7% “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

295

Public highway bridges in Ottawa County

Good condition

40.3%

119 of 295 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.9%

162 of 295 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.7%

14 of 295 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#58 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 295 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

40.3% (119)

Fair

54.9% (162)

Poor

4.7% (14)

Ottawa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,355 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 97 crossings a day against 631 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 295 of 295 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

69.2% of Ottawa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

204 of the 295 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 40.3% 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 29.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

L.7-13.6 MINOR over PIPE CREEK, built 1915, carries 400 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,355 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

2
1920s

6
1930s

55
1940s

29
1950s

41
1960s

42
1970s

42
1980s

32
1990s

23
2000s

15
2010s

5
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 55 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.6% 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 Ottawa County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Ottawa County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.7% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 12 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ottawa County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jewell County	307	57.3%	35.5%	7.2%	1972
Coffey County	305	75.4%	23.3%	1.3%	1984
Osage County	304	57.9%	35.9%	6.3%	1972
Pottawatomie County	303	48.2%	44.6%	7.3%	1975
Crawford County	297	52.9%	39.7%	7.4%	1969
Ottawa County (this page)	295	40.3%	54.9%	4.7%	1962

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (295 bridges here).

Cass County, IA · 295 bridges
Marion County, IL · 296 bridges
Vigo County, IN · 296 bridges
Story County, IA · 296 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 295 Good 119 Fair 162 Poor 14

All bridges (295)

Sort:

Ottawa County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ottawa County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,355 vehicle crossings a day

69.2% of Ottawa County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 29.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ottawa 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 (295)

V-13.4 MINOR

I.5-13.2 LOCAL

P.7-5 LOCAL

I.9-13 LOCAL

P.5-4 LOCAL

L.2-13 LOCAL

C-1.1 MINOR

RS 131

U.5-14 LOCAL

AA.3-6 LOCAL

P.4-2 LOCAL

RS 397

E.6-21.8 LOCAL

F-7.3 MINOR

G.4-20 LOCAL

H-11.7 LOCAL

H.9-19 LOCAL

I-19.6 LOCAL

O.7-6 LOCAL

RS 131

RS 447

RS 518

M.4-5 LOCAL

RS 1053

RS 447

L.5-2 LOCAL

X.3-22.7 LOCAL

H-8.3 LOCAL

280th RD

BB-17.9 LOCAL

E.1-23 MINOR

M-1.3 MINOR

N.6-9.3 LOCAL

U.9-7 LOCAL

RS 131

Z-19.1 LOCAL

K18 HWY

K18 HWY

K18 HWY

S-23.8 LOCAL

T-4.8 LOCAL

RS 518

RS 1050

E.9-13 LOCAL

US81 HWY NB/SB

RS 520

K-15.5 LOCAL

RS 136

K18 HWY

K41 HWY

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