County profile · official public datasets

Pawnee County, KS

164 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.2% rated Good, 57.3% Fair, 5.5% Poor.

164
Public bridges: 37.2%
Good condition: 5.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pawnee 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.

63rd
of 104 on Poor share: 5.5%
Poor-condition share: 164
public highway bridges: 1957
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.

Pawnee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pawnee County ranks #63 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.5%). Pawnee County, Kansas contains 164 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.2% are rated “Good,” 57.3% “Fair,” and 5.5% “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

164

Public highway bridges in Pawnee County

Good condition

37.2%

61 of 164 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.3%

94 of 164 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.5%

9 of 164 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#63 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 164 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.2% (61)

Fair

57.3% (94)

Poor

5.5% (9)

Pawnee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 430 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 48 crossings a day against 588 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 164 of 164 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

74.4% of Pawnee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

122 of the 164 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 37.2% 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 46.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RS 1518 O Road over ARKANSAS RIVER, built 1975, carries 200 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 430 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

52
1940s

29
1950s

12
1960s

20
1970s

9
1980s

13
1990s

7
2000s

9
2010s

5
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 52 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1957, 15 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Pawnee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1957 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pawnee 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	167	63.5%	27.5%	9%	1961
Trego County	166	45.2%	50.6%	4.2%	1965
Pawnee County (this page)	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 Pawnee 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 Pawnee County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (164 bridges here).

Sevier County, AR · 164 bridges
Cherokee County, GA · 164 bridges
Morrison County, MN · 164 bridges
Choctaw County, MS · 164 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1957 here).

Essex County, MA · avg 1957 · 395 bridges
Greer County, OK · avg 1957 · 230 bridges
Spink County, SD · avg 1957 · 176 bridges
Brewster County, TX · avg 1957 · 114 bridges

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

All 164 Good 61 Fair 94 Poor 9

Fair-condition bridges (94)

Sort:

Pawnee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pawnee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 430 vehicle crossings a day

74.4% of Pawnee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 46.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pawnee 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

Fair-condition bridges (94)

220 Road

210 Road

R Road

O Road

210 Ave

L Road

Y Road

P Road

180 Road

L Road

U Road

W Road

Q Road

S Road

100 Road

100 Ave

90 Road

H Road

50 Ave

D Road

D Road

RS 524 345 Ave

RS 526 110 Ave

RS 950 J RD

U Road

K19 HWY

RS 975 280th AVE

RS 225 180 Ave

RS 439 T RD

L RD

250 Road

120 Road

US183 HWY

US56 HWY

160 Road

C Road

US56 HWY

200 Road

120 Road

US183 HWY

RS 526 110 AVE

U RD

RS 1909 280 Ave

K-19S HWY

Related