Total bridges
164
Public highway bridges in Pawnee County
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.
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.
When Pawnee County's bridges were built
164 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
52 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
29 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s 20
1960–1969
20 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s 13
1980–1989
13 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 9
2000–2009
9 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
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.
| 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.
Poor-condition bridges (9)
V Road
PoorOver: TRIB. TO COCKLEBUR CREEK
7.0N 4.0E OF ROZEL, Pawnee, KS
Built 1935 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 25
W Road
PoorOver: TRIB. TO ASH CREEK
8.0N 5.0W OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1945 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 40
RS 439 T RD
PoorOver: ASH CREEK
3.0W 5.0N OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1966 Load: 15.4 t ADT: 40
South Road
PoorOver: TRIB. TO PAWNEE RIVER
3.5N 3.0W OF ROZEL, Pawnee, KS
Built 1940 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 10
RS 1518 O Road
PoorOver: ARKANSAS RIVER
5.0E 1.5N OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1975 Load: 19.1 t ADT: 200
40 Road
PoorOver: ASH CREEK
7.0E 4.5N OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1940 Load: 19.1 t ADT: 45
R Road
PoorOver: ASH CREEK
3.0N 2.5E OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1945 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 20
190 Road
PoorOver: SAWMILL CREEK
2.0S 8.0W OF LARNED, Pawnee, KS
Built 1965 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 20
M Road
PoorOver: SAWMILL CREEK
1.5S 3.5E OF ROZEL, Pawnee, KS
Built 1986 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 30
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.