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.

Total bridges

262

Public highway bridges in Rice County

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.

1920s

6
1930s

19
1940s

14
1950s

29
1960s

26
1970s

39
1980s

41
1990s

49
2000s

20
2010s

6
2020s

13

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.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Rice County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
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.

All 262 Good 128 Fair 126 Poor 8

Good-condition bridges (128)

Sort:

Rice County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Rice County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,690 vehicle crossings a day

43.9% of Rice County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 70.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Rice 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 (128)

AVE. W | RS 1534

AVE. Q | RS 445

12TH RD.

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

K14 HWY

AVE. W | RS 1534

AVE. F | RS 984

8TH RD. | RS 360

AVE. W | RS 1534

K4 HWY

K14 HWY

K14 HWY

AVE. Q | RS 445

7TH RD.

US56 HWY

US56 HWY

AVE. E

AVE. O

AVE. W | RS 1534

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

AVE. R

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

8TH RD. | RS 360

20TH RD.

AVE. N

AVE. P

AVE. H

AVE Q. | RS 981

AVE. M | RS 573

AVE. J

AVE. O

19TH RD. | RS 986

905TH RD. | RS 360

5TH RD.

7TH RD.

AVE. N

AVE. M

AVE Q. | RS 981

AVE. R

AVE. C

15TH RD.

18TH RD.

28TH RD. | RS 574

6TH RD.

7TH RD.

15TH RD.

15TH RD.

Related