Total bridges
119
Public highway bridges in Stafford County
County profile · official public datasets
Stafford County, KS
119 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.4% rated Good, 46.2% Fair, 3.4% Poor.
- 119
- Public bridges
- 50.4%
- Good condition
- 3.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Stafford 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 40%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 119
- public highway bridges
- 1979
- 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.
Stafford County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Stafford County ranks #42 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.4%). Stafford County, Kansas contains 119 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.4% are rated “Good,” 46.2% “Fair,” and 3.4% “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
50.4%
60 of 119 rated 7-9
Fair condition
46.2%
55 of 119 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.4%
4 of 119 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#42 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 119 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 50.4% (60)
Fair 46.2% (55)
Poor 3.4% (4)
Stafford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 55 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 14 crossings a day against 564 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 119 of 119 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
41.2% of Stafford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
49 of the 119 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 50.4% 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 27.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NE 20 Ave over RATTLESNAKE CREEK, built 1976, carries 15 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 55 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Stafford County's bridges were built
119 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
18 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
27 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
20 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
35 bridges
- 2000s 7
2000–2009
7 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 7 years newer than the Kansas average of 1972.
How Stafford County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Stafford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 7 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doniphan County | 129 | 50.4% | 41.1% | 8.5% | 1977 |
| Stafford County (this page) | 119 | 50.4% | 46.2% | 3.4% | 1979 |
| Pratt County | 118 | 65.3% | 34.7% | 0% | 1981 |
| Sheridan County | 116 | 50.9% | 39.7% | 9.5% | 1969 |
| Comanche County | 110 | 50.9% | 48.2% | 0.9% | 1967 |
| Gove County | 109 | 45% | 53.2% | 1.8% | 1968 |
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 Stafford 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 Stafford County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (119 bridges here).
- Carroll County, AR · 119 bridges
- Grant County, AR · 119 bridges
- Grayson County, KY · 119 bridges
- Ionia County, MI · 119 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1979 here).
- Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
- Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
- Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
- Madison County, IL · avg 1979 · 523 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (55)
SE 135 Ave
FairOver: N. FK. NINNESCAH RIVER
3.4S 5.5E OF STAFFORD, Stafford, KS
Built 1973 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 10
NE 170 St
FairOver: TRIB. TO SALT CREEK
2.0N 16.2E OF SEWARD, Stafford, KS
Built 1960 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 10
SE 110 Ave
FairOver: DOOLEYVILLE CREEK
3.0E and 1.7S of Stafford, Stafford, KS
Built 2000 Load: 34.4 t ADT: 25
SW 70 Ave
FairOver: RATTLESNAKE CREEK
6.8S OF DILLWYN, Stafford, KS
Built 1983 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 155
SE 110 Ave
FairOver: N. FK. NINNESCAH RIVER
3.0E and 4.1S of Stafford, Stafford, KS
Built 2015 Load: 38.0 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.