County profile · official public datasets

Rooks County, KS

169 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45% rated Good, 53.3% Fair, 1.8% Poor.

169
Public bridges: 45%
Good condition: 1.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Rooks County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 22%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.8%
Poor-condition share: 169
public highway bridges: 1968
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.

Rooks County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rooks County ranks #23 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.8%). Rooks County, Kansas contains 169 public highway bridges. Roughly 45% are rated “Good,” 53.3% “Fair,” and 1.8% “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

169

Public highway bridges in Rooks County

Good condition

45%

76 of 169 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.3%

90 of 169 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.8%

3 of 169 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#23 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 169 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45% (76)

Fair

53.3% (90)

Poor

1.8% (3)

Rooks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 945 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 315 crossings a day against 407 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 169 of 169 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

63.3% of Rooks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

107 of the 169 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 45% 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 90.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US24 HWY over DIBBLE CREEK, built 1929, carries 855 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 945 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

16
1940s

6
1950s

45
1960s

24
1970s

22
1980s

22
1990s

19
2000s

7
2010s

4
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 45 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1968) matches the Kansas average (1972).

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Rooks County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.8% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1964 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Rooks County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Morris County	179	33%	54.2%	12.8%	1967
Rush County	170	48.8%	43.5%	7.6%	1968
Rooks County (this page)	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	164	37.2%	57.3%	5.5%	1957

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (169 bridges here).

Pike County, AL · 169 bridges
Laurens County, GA · 169 bridges
Cumberland County, IL · 169 bridges
Union County, IA · 169 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1968 here).

Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 bridges

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

All 169 Good 76 Fair 90 Poor 3

All bridges (169)

Sort:

Rooks County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Rooks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 945 vehicle crossings a day

63.3% of Rooks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 90.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Rooks 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

All bridges (169)

US24 HWY

J ROAD (RS 1760)

A ROAD

11 ROAD

25 ROAD

A TERRACE

CC ROAD

A ROAD

H ROAD

AA ROAD

R ROAD (RS 912)

3 ROAD (RS 530)

B ROAD

26.5 ROAD (RS1729)

AA ROAD (RS 1850)

B ROAD

9 ROAD

26 ROAD (RS 1729)

AA ROAD (RS 1850)

R ROAD (RS 912)

K TERR. (RS 1709)

F ROAD

US24 HWY

20 ROAD

J.5 ROAD

A ROAD

B ROAD

2 ROAD (RS 582)

J ROAD (RS 1760)

US24 HWY

10 ROAD (RS 583)

B ROAD

10 ROAD (RS 583)

U ROAD

US24 HWY

31 ROAD

19 ROAD

12 ROAD (RS 534)

T ROAD

T ROAD

A ROAD

R ROAD (RS 912)

US24 HWY

10 ROAD (RS 583)

J ROAD (RS 1760)

10 ROAD (RS 583)

E ROAD (RS 911)

11 ROAD

10 ROAD (RS 583)

R ROAD (RS 912)

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