County profile · official public datasets

Wallace County, KS

44 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.5% rated Good, 40.9% Fair, 4.5% Poor.

44
Public bridges: 54.5%
Good condition: 4.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Wallace 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.

56th
of 104 on Poor share: 4.5%
Poor-condition share: 44
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.

Wallace County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wallace County ranks #56 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Wallace County, Kansas contains 44 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.5% are rated “Good,” 40.9% “Fair,” and 4.5% “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 Wallace County

Good condition

54.5%

24 of 44 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40.9%

18 of 44 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.5%

2 of 44 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#56 of 104

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

Condition distribution

Share of 44 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.5% (24)

Fair

40.9% (18)

Poor

4.5% (2)

Wallace County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,255 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 628 crossings a day against 368 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 44 of 44 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

77.3% of Wallace County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

34 of the 44 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 54.5% 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 97.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US40 HWY over S F SMOKY HILL RIV, built 1960, carries 1,220 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 1,255 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

4
1940s

2
1950s

10
1960s

15
1970s

4
1980s

1
1990s

2
2000s

2
2010s

2
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 34.1% 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 Wallace County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Kansas counties nearest Wallace County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1960 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wallace County and the 5 Kansas counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Gray County	66	66.7%	33.3%	0%	1961
Logan County	55	60%	36.4%	3.6%	1967
Wallace County (this page)	44	54.5%	40.9%	4.5%	1966
Greeley County	33	63.6%	36.4%	0%	1959
Lane County	25	60%	36%	4%	1958
Scott County	22	81.8%	18.2%	0%	1954

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KS (44 bridges here).

Archuleta County, CO · 44 bridges
Bacon County, GA · 44 bridges
Pulaski County, GA · 44 bridges
Rockdale County, GA · 44 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 44 Good 24 Fair 18 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (24)

Sort:

Wallace County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wallace County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,255 vehicle crossings a day

77.3% of Wallace County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 97.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wallace 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 (24)

ROAD 22

ROAD 3 (RS 288)

US40 HWY

ROAD 6 (RS 288)

BLUE BIRD ROAD

ROAD 26 (RS 118)

ROAD 11 (RS 881)

BLUE BIRD ROAD

BLUE BIRD ROAD

US40 HWY

ROAD 30 (RS 118)

PEBBLE ROAD

ROAD 26 (O.7-25.2)

U40 HWY

ROAD 3 (Y.8-2.0)

K-27 HWY

ZIGZAG ROAD

K27 HWY

IRON HORSE ROAD

K27 HWY

ROAD 16

ROAD 16 (G.8-15.0)

ARROWHEAD ROAD

K27 HWY

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