County profile · official public datasets

Trego County, KS

166 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.2% rated Good, 50.6% Fair, 4.2% Poor.

166
Public bridges: 45.2%
Good condition: 4.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

53rd
of 104 on Poor share: 4.2%
Poor-condition share: 166
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Trego County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Trego County ranks #53 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.2%). Trego County, Kansas contains 166 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.2% are rated “Good,” 50.6% “Fair,” and 4.2% “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

166

Public highway bridges in Trego County

Good condition

45.2%

75 of 166 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50.6%

84 of 166 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.2%

7 of 166 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#53 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 166 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

45.2% (75)

Fair

50.6% (84)

Poor

4.2% (7)

Trego County's Poor-condition bridges carry 240 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 34 crossings a day against 1,665 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 166 of 166 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

76.5% of Trego County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

127 of the 166 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 45.2% 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 31.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

380th AVE(RS 1747) over TRIB TO SMOKY HILL RIVER, built 1934, carries 75 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 240 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

26
1940s

2
1950s

46
1960s

42
1970s

13
1980s

7
1990s

7
2000s

11
2010s

6
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 46 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 7 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Trego County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1966 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Trego County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Rush County	170	48.8%	43.5%	7.6%	1968
Rooks County	169	45%	53.3%	1.8%	1968
Ness County	167	63.5%	27.5%	9%	1961
Trego County (this page)	166	45.2%	50.6%	4.2%	1965
Pawnee County	164	37.2%	57.3%	5.5%	1957
Decatur County	159	45.3%	45.3%	9.4%	1976

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (166 bridges here).

Clay County, IL · 166 bridges
Bay County, MI · 166 bridges
Pontotoc County, MS · 166 bridges
Barry County, MO · 166 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
Columbia County, PA · avg 1965 · 271 bridges

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

All 166 Good 75 Fair 84 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (75)

Sort:

Trego County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Trego County's Poor-condition bridges carry 240 vehicle crossings a day

76.5% of Trego County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 31.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Trego 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

Good-condition bridges (75)

I70 HWY EB

I70 HWY WB

I70 HWY EB

LOCAL ROAD

US283 HWY

160th Ave

US283 HWY

310th Ave

260th ROAD

I70 HWY WB

C ROAD

I70 HWY NL-SL

US283 HWY

K-147

330th AVE (RS 508)

180 ROAD (RS 685)

K-147 HWY

120th Ave

290th ROAD

US283 HWY

AA ROAD (RS 1979)

O ROAD

U ROAD

US283 HWY

370th AVE

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