County profile · official public datasets

Wabaunsee County, KS

242 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.8% rated Good, 52.9% Fair, 10.3% Poor.

242
Public bridges: 36.8%
Good condition: 10.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wabaunsee 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.

93rd
of 104 on Poor share: 10.3%
Poor-condition share: 242
public highway bridges: 1963
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.

Wabaunsee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wabaunsee County ranks #93 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.3%). Wabaunsee County, Kansas contains 242 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.8% are rated “Good,” 52.9% “Fair,” and 10.3% “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

242

Public highway bridges in Wabaunsee County

Good condition

36.8%

89 of 242 rated 7-9

Fair condition

52.9%

128 of 242 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10.3%

25 of 242 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#93 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 242 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

36.8% (89)

Fair

52.9% (128)

Poor

10.3% (25)

Wabaunsee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,105 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 44 crossings a day against 2,905 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 241 of 242 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.6% of Wabaunsee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

166 of the 242 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 36.8% 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 45.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RS1013 K185 HWY over I70 HWY NL-SL, built 1962, carries 505 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 25-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,105 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

14
1910s

10
1920s

21
1930s

20
1940s

8
1950s

24
1960s

45
1970s

27
1980s

5
1990s

23
2000s

22
2010s

20
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 45 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 9 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.

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

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Wabaunsee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.3% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wabaunsee County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Norton County	244	53.7%	44.3%	2%	1980
Osborne County	244	52.5%	40.2%	7.4%	1967
Wabaunsee County (this page)	242	36.8%	52.9%	10.3%	1963
Barber County	241	44.8%	53.9%	1.2%	1974
Leavenworth County	241	61%	36.1%	2.9%	1981
Neosho County	241	60.2%	29.5%	10.4%	1969

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (242 bridges here).

Glenn County, CA · 242 bridges
Macoupin County, IL · 242 bridges
Tuscola County, MI · 242 bridges
Kings County, NY · 242 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1963 here).

Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges

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

All 242 Good 89 Fair 128 Poor 25

Good-condition bridges (89)

Sort:

Wabaunsee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wabaunsee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,105 vehicle crossings a day

68.6% of Wabaunsee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 45.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wabaunsee 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 (89)

I70 HWY NL-SL

RS 1755 N.2-11.0

RS 665 BB-11.0

RS0650

LOCAL RD. 29

LOCAL RD. 119

I70 HWY EB/WB

LOCAL RD. 84

RS0680

LOCAL RD. 89

RS 650 20-I.8

LOCAL RD. 42

LOCAL RD. 105

RS 1756 BB-13.2

RS 652 B-16.5

K4 HWY

K4 HWY

K18 HWY

I70 HWY EB

RS 519 12.9-DD.1

LOCAL RD. 44

I70 HWY WB

I70 HWY EB

K99 HWY

30-AA.8 RS619

RS 1756 BB-15.3

LOCAL RD. 71

LOCAL RD. 11

LOCAL RD. 141

I70 HWY WB

I70 HWY WB

K-18 HWY

MINOR COL 32

MINOR COL 101

RS 1682 13.5-N.7

LOCAL RD. 4

MINOR COL 18

K-4 HWY

RS0652 K30 HWY

K4 HWY

I-70 HIGHWAY EB

RS 1071 27-J.4

MINOR COL 99

LOCAL RD. 70

LOCAL RD. 56

K-4 HIGHWAY

K-4 HIGHWAY

K-4 HIGHWAY

LOCAL RD. 83

RS 1440 23-I.2

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