County profile · official public datasets

Thomas County, KS

82 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 63.4% rated Good, 34.1% Fair, 2.4% Poor.

82
Public bridges: 63.4%
Good condition: 2.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Thomas County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 29%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.4%
Poor-condition share: 82
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Thomas County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Thomas County ranks #30 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.4%). Thomas County, Kansas contains 82 public highway bridges. Roughly 63.4% are rated “Good,” 34.1% “Fair,” and 2.4% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Thomas County

Good condition

63.4%

52 of 82 rated 7-9

Fair condition

34.1%

28 of 82 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.4%

2 of 82 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#30 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 82 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

63.4% (52)

Fair

34.1% (28)

Poor

2.4% (2)

Thomas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,580 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,290 crossings a day against 1,912 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 82 of 82 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

81.7% of Thomas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

67 of the 82 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 63.4% 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 99.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I70 HWY WL-EL over S FORK SOLOMON RIVER, built 1966, carries 6,550 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,580 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

5
1940s

4
1950s

12
1960s

44
1970s

3
1980s

7
1990s

1
2000s

1
2010s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 53.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 6 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Thomas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Thomas County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Kiowa County	90	45.6%	51.1%	3.3%	1969
Meade County	84	73.8%	26.2%	0%	1969
Thomas County (this page)	82	63.4%	34.1%	2.4%	1966
Finney County	78	67.9%	29.5%	2.6%	1972
Kearny County	72	41.7%	58.3%	0%	1968
Edwards County	69	26.1%	69.6%	4.3%	1970

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (82 bridges here).

Murray County, GA · 82 bridges
Gallatin County, IL · 82 bridges
Nicholas County, KY · 82 bridges
St. Charles County, LA · 82 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1966 here).

Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges
Osage County, OK · avg 1966 · 366 bridges

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

All 82 Good 52 Fair 28 Poor 2

All bridges (82)

Sort:

Thomas County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Thomas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,580 vehicle crossings a day

81.7% of Thomas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 99.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Thomas 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 (82)

Co Rd 36 (RS 180)

Co Rd 11 (RS 888)

K25 HWY

Co Rd 35 (RS 1474)

Co Rd Q (RS 888)

Co Rd 27 (RS 889)

K25 HWY

County Rd 14Q

I-70 HIGHWAY

Co Rd 11 (RS 1510)

K25 HWY

Co Rd 35 (RS 1474)

PINE STREET

FRANKLIN STREET

COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE

Co Rd 11 (RS 888)

I-70 HWY EASTBOUND

County Rd 7

I-70 HIGHWAY

I-70 HIGHWAY

I-70 HWY WESTBOUND

I-70 HWY EASTBOUND

I70 HWY WL-EL

I70 HWY WL-EL

I-70 HIGHWAY

I-70 HWY EASTBOUND

I-70 HIGHWAY

I-70 HIGHWAY

US24 HWY

I-70 HIGHWAY

Co Rd 35 (RS 1474)

Co Rd F (RS 624)

US24 HWY

K25 HWY

US83 HWY

Co Rd 36 (RS 1474)

Co Rd 27 (RS 886)

County Rd 32

Co Rd 2 (RS 1513)

County Rd 24

Co Rd 36 (RS 180)

K25 HWY

County Rd Z

Co Rd 2 (RS 410)

Co Rd 11 (RS 1510)

Co Rd 11 (RS 1510)

County Rd 15

I-70 HWY WESTBOUND

I-70 HWY EASTBOUND

COUNTY ROAD

Related