Total bridges
262
Public highway bridges in Rice County
County profile · official public datasets
Rice County, KS
262 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.9% rated Good, 48.1% Fair, 3.1% Poor.
- 262
- Public bridges
- 48.9%
- Good condition
- 3.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Rice 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 38%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 262
- public highway bridges
- 1977
- 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.
Rice County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rice County ranks #40 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.1%). Rice County, Kansas contains 262 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.9% are rated “Good,” 48.1% “Fair,” and 3.1% “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
48.9%
128 of 262 rated 7-9
Fair condition
48.1%
126 of 262 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.1%
8 of 262 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#40 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 262 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 48.9% (128)
Fair 48.1% (126)
Poor 3.1% (8)
Rice County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,690 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 586 crossings a day against 642 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 255 of 262 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
43.9% of Rice County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
115 of the 262 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 48.9% 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 70.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US56 HWY over SPRING CREEK DRAINAGE, built 1931, carries 3,320 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 4,690 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Rice County's bridges were built
262 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s 19
1930–1939
19 bridges
- 1940s 14
1940–1949
14 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
29 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
26 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
39 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
41 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
49 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
20 bridges
- 2010s 6
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 13
2020–2029
13 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 49 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1977, 5 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.
How Rice County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Rice County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 7 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic County | 266 | 56% | 41% | 3% | 1976 |
| Rice County (this page) | 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 |
| Linn County | 257 | 59.9% | 35.4% | 4.7% | 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 Rice 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 Rice County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (262 bridges here).
- Yuma County, AZ · 262 bridges
- Washtenaw County, MI · 262 bridges
- Lavaca County, TX · 262 bridges
- Albemarle County, VA · 262 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1977 here).
- San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
- King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
- Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
- Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (126)
AVE. C | RS 2033
FairOver: WOLF CREEK
6.0N 2.7E OF LITTLE RIVER, Rice, KS
Built 1988 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
AVE. C
FairOver: CALF CREEK
1.5S 2.6W OF BUSHTON, Rice, KS
Built 1973 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 35
AVE. L
FairOver: SPRING CREEK
0.9E 0.7N OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1972 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
AVE. G
FairOver: LOST CREEK
1.1E 5.7N OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1967 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 35
Lincoln St-E Ave S
FairOver: Salt Creek
City Of Lyons, Rice, KS
Built 1935 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 250
AVE. R
FairOver: COW CREEK OVERFLOW
2.8E 4.5N OF STERLING, Rice, KS
Built 1972 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 30
AVE. J
FairOver: LITTLE ARKANSAS RIVER
0.5S 0.7E OF LITTLE RIVER, Rice, KS
Built 1975 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 50
6TH RD.
FairOver: SALT CREEK
0.5S 3.5W OF ALDEN, Rice, KS
Built 1976 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 40
US56 HWY
FairOver: LITTLE ARKANSAS RIV OVFL
1.23 MI E K46, Rice, KS
Built 1929 Load: 34.5 t ADT: 3,110
9TH RD.
FairOver: SPRING CREEK
1.0E 0.9N OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1992 Load: 36.2 t ADT: 35
AVE. L
FairOver: SPRING CREEK
1.2E 0.5N OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1982 Load: 37.2 t ADT: 40
K14 HWY
FairOver: ARKANSAS RIVER
0.78 MI N RENO CO. LINE, Rice, KS
Built 1978 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 3,100
20TH RD.
FairOver: SANTE FE SLOUGH
2.3N 4.5E OF STERLING, Rice, KS
Built 1991 Load: 42.3 t ADT: 85
10TH RD.
FairOver: COW CREEK
2.0E 3.2N OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1995 Load: 43.9 t ADT: 40
12TH RD.
FairOver: COW CREEK
1.5S 4.0E OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1994 Load: 44.3 t ADT: 35
3RD RD.
FairOver: COW CREEK
2.5W 4.9S OF BUSHTON, Rice, KS
Built 1990 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 70
AVE. N
FairOver: LITTLE ARKANSAS RIVER
3.0E 4.5S OF LITTLE RIVER, Rice, KS
Built 1990 Load: 45.9 t ADT: 35
22ND RD. | RS 560
FairOver: DRY CREEK
6.0E 2.8N OF STERLING, Rice, KS
Built 1982 Load: 49.6 t ADT: 1,155
AVE. N
FairOver: LITTLE COW CREEK
1.0S 1.7W OF LYONS, Rice, KS
Built 1978 Load: 50.7 t ADT: 40
9TH RD.
FairOver: TRIB. TO SPRING CREEK
1.0E OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1978 Load: 53.3 t ADT: 35
AVE. M
FairOver: DRY CREEK
0.2E 3.5S OF LITTLE RIVER, Rice, KS
Built 1990 Load: 54.7 t ADT: 50
10TH RD.
FairOver: SPRING CREEK
2.0E OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1989 Load: 55.0 t ADT: 40
AVE. D
FairOver: PLUM CREEK
2.0E 2.4S OF BUSHTON, Rice, KS
Built 1993 Load: 55.5 t ADT: 30
6TH RD.
FairOver: TRIB. TO COW CREEK
4.1N 2.0W OF CHASE, Rice, KS
Built 1987 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 40
AVE. C
FairOver: PLUM CREEK
1.6E 1.4S OF BUSHTON, Rice, KS
Built 1999 Load: 61.1 t ADT: 35
AVE. V
FairOver: RATTLESNAKE CREEK
1.9S 3.2W OF ALDEN, Rice, KS
Built 1997 Load: 76.4 t ADT: 25
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.