County profile · official public datasets

Shawnee County, KS

563 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 62.9% rated Good, 34.1% Fair, 3% Poor.

563
Public bridges: 62.9%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Shawnee 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%
Poor-condition share: 563
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.

Shawnee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Shawnee County ranks #39 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Shawnee County, Kansas contains 563 public highway bridges. Roughly 62.9% are rated “Good,” 34.1% “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

563

Public highway bridges in Shawnee County

Good condition

62.9%

354 of 563 rated 7-9

Fair condition

34.1%

192 of 563 rated 5-6

Poor condition

17 of 563 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 563 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

62.9% (354)

Fair

34.1% (192)

Poor

3% (17)

Shawnee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 45,010 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% 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 2,648 crossings a day against 4,970 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 563 of 563 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37.8% of Shawnee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

213 of the 563 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 62.9% 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 41.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I70 HWY NL-SL over 8 STREETS 3 RR, built 1963, carries 18,550 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 17-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 45,010 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

3
1920s

15
1930s

23
1940s

11
1950s

63
1960s

63
1970s

78
1980s

53
1990s

78
2000s

108
2010s

55
2020s

11

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 108 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 9 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Shawnee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Shawnee County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sumner County	659	50.2%	47.2%	2.6%	1978
Butler County	591	59.2%	34.7%	6.1%	1966
McPherson County	586	66.6%	32.8%	0.7%	1979
Reno County	573	51.8%	42.1%	6.1%	1980
Shawnee County (this page)	563	62.9%	34.1%	3%	1981
Lyon County	492	65.7%	33.3%	1%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (563 bridges here).

Middlesex County, NJ · 563 bridges
Summit County, OH · 563 bridges
Linn County, OR · 566 bridges
Larimer County, CO · 559 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.

All 563 Good 354 Fair 192 Poor 17

All bridges (563)

Sort:

Shawnee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Shawnee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 45,010 vehicle crossings a day

37.8% of Shawnee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 41.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Shawnee 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 (563)

NW Forestry Dump R

RS 621 185

URISH ROAD

FAIRLAWN

I-470 HWY (KTA) SB

I-470 HWY (KTA) NB

Carlson Rd

N.W. 46TH. ST 111

US-75 HIGHWAY SB

HUNTER RD. 110

SE 93rd Street

US-24 HWY EB

SE 21st

SW 38th St.

I-470 HWY (KTA) SB

I-470 HWY (KTA) NB

RS 1254 227

US-75 HWY NB

I470 HWY EB

I470 HWY WB

N.E. 43RD. ST. 211

SW Buchanan

S.W. 49TH. ST. 285

WARD RD. 261

I-470 HWY EB

I-470 HWY WB

S.E. 77TH. ST. 257

SW Wanamaker

RS 1254 140

URB5370 17TH ST

SE 2nd Street 323

SW Colly Cr. Dr.

US 75 HWY SB

US 75 HWY NB

RS 514 220

RS 207 173

NW Topeka Blvd.

K-4 HWY

I-335 HWY (KTA) SB

I-335 HWY (KTA) NB

N.W. 39TH. ST. 163

NW Lyman Rd.

I-70 HWY

US-75 HIGHWAY SB

BUTTON RD. 283

NE Sardou

S.W. 85TH. ST. 197

N.E. 70TH. ST. 236

GOODELL RD. 245

HODGES RD. 93

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