Total bridges
14
Public highway bridges in Seward County
County profile · official public datasets
Seward County, KS
14 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.1% rated Good, 42.9% Fair, 0% Poor.
- 14
- Public bridges
- 57.1%
- Good condition
- 0%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Seward County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 13%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 0%
- Poor-condition share
- 14
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Seward County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Seward County ranks #14 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Seward County, Kansas contains 14 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.1% are rated “Good,” 42.9% “Fair,” and 0% “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
57.1%
8 of 14 rated 7-9
Fair condition
42.9%
6 of 14 rated 5-6
Poor condition
0%
0 of 14 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#14 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 14 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 57.1% (8)
Fair 42.9% (6)
Poor 0% (0)
42.9% of Seward County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
6 of the 14 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 57.1% 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.
When Seward County's bridges were built
14 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
3 bridges
- 1970s 1
1970–1979
1 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 1990s 1
1990–1999
1 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
2 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 4 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 9 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.
How Seward County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Seward County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is 16 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott County | 22 | 81.8% | 18.2% | 0% | 1954 |
| Stanton County | 21 | 33.3% | 66.7% | 0% | 1969 |
| Haskell County | 18 | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 1955 |
| Morton County | 17 | 88.2% | 11.8% | 0% | 1985 |
| Grant County | 16 | 75% | 25% | 0% | 1964 |
| Seward County (this page) | 14 | 57.1% | 42.9% | 0% | 1981 |
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 Seward 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 Seward County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (14 bridges here).
- Rock County, NE · 14 bridges
- Barranquitas County, PR · 14 bridges
- McPherson County, SD · 14 bridges
- Yakutat City and County, AK · 15 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (0)
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.