County profile · official public datasets

Republic County, KS

266 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56% rated Good, 41% Fair, 3% Poor.

266
Public bridges: 56%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Republic County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 37%
lowest Poor share in state: 3%
Poor-condition share: 266
public highway bridges: 1976
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.

Republic County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Republic County ranks #38 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Republic County, Kansas contains 266 public highway bridges. Roughly 56% are rated “Good,” 41% “Fair,” and 3% “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

266

Public highway bridges in Republic County

Good condition

56%

149 of 266 rated 7-9

Fair condition

41%

109 of 266 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8 of 266 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#38 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 266 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

56% (149)

Fair

41% (109)

Poor

3% (8)

Republic County's Poor-condition bridges carry 197 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 25 crossings a day against 453 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 266 of 266 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

44.4% of Republic County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

118 of the 266 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 56% 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 25.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

LOCAL RD. Q-4.1 over TRIB. TO BEAVER CREEK, built 1930, carries 50 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 197 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1930s

26
1940s

24
1950s

41
1960s

19
1970s

13
1980s

49
1990s

31
2000s

25
2010s

30
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 49 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1976) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Republic County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Republic County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Ellis County	275	51.3%	44.7%	4%	1969
Republic County (this page)	266	56%	41%	3%	1976
Rice County	262	48.9%	48.1%	3.1%	1977
Russell County	261	43.7%	54.4%	1.9%	1966
Mitchell County	260	59.6%	36.9%	3.5%	1962
Ellsworth County	259	48.6%	48.6%	2.7%	1970

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (266 bridges here).

Lauderdale County, AL · 266 bridges
Wayne County, IL · 266 bridges
Bremer County, IA · 266 bridges
Cerro Gordo County, IA · 266 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1976 here).

Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges

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

All 266 Good 149 Fair 109 Poor 8

Good-condition bridges (149)

Sort:

Republic County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Republic County's Poor-condition bridges carry 197 vehicle crossings a day

44.4% of Republic County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 25.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Republic 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

Good-condition bridges (149)

US-81 HWY NB

LOCAL RD. 8-Y.0

Local Road X-10.3

LOCAL RD. 19-T.5

RS 1041

LOCAL RD. P-19.3

LOCAL RD. 19-C.9

RS 1734

K148 HWY

LOCAL RD. J-29.9

LOCAL RD. 29-K.7

LOCAL RD. 17-P.8

K- 148 HWY

US-81 HIGHWAY SB

US-81 HWY NB

MINOR COL J-26.3

US-36 HWY

K-148 HWY

LOCAL RD. Z-27.4

MINOR COL J-24.1

K148 HWY

LOCAL RD. T-5.7

LOCAL RD. 15-S.8

RS 334

LOCAL RD. T-22.2

LOCAL RD. 25-B.6

RS 564

MINOR COL N-8.4

US36 HWY

US36 HWY

RS 1313

LOCAL RD. U-22.5

US-36 HWY

US-36 HWY

Local Rd U-22.3

LOCAL RD. 8-E.3

US-36 HWY

LOCAL RD. R-17.5

US-36 HWY

U-81 HWY

LOCAL RD. 19-O.5

US-36 HWY

US-81 HWY NB

K266 HWY

K-148 HWY

RS 566

MINOR COL 28-N.2

K139 HWY

LOCAL RD. T-19.1

Related