Total bridges
143
Public highway bridges in Woodson County
County profile · official public datasets
Woodson County, KS
143 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.1% rated Good, 54.5% Fair, 8.4% Poor.
- 143
- Public bridges
- 37.1%
- Good condition
- 8.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Woodson 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.
- 82nd
- of 104 on Poor share
- 8.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 143
- public highway bridges
- 1958
- 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.
Woodson County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Woodson County ranks #82 of 104 Kansas counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.4%). Woodson County, Kansas contains 143 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.1% are rated “Good,” 54.5% “Fair,” and 8.4% “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
37.1%
53 of 143 rated 7-9
Fair condition
54.5%
78 of 143 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8.4%
12 of 143 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#82 of 104
Among Kansas counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 143 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 37.1% (53)
Fair 54.5% (78)
Poor 8.4% (12)
Woodson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 695 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 58 crossings a day against 691 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 143 of 143 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
68.5% of Woodson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
98 of the 143 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 37.1% 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 75.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
K105 HWY over CEDAR CREEK, built 1949, carries 523 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 695 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Woodson County's bridges were built
143 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 10
1920–1929
10 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
44 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
18 bridges
- 1960s 13
1960–1969
13 bridges
- 1970s 11
1970–1979
11 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
18 bridges
- 1990s 11
1990–1999
11 bridges
- 2000s 5
2000–2009
5 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1958, 14 years older than the Kansas average of 1972.
How Woodson County compares with Kansas's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kansas counties nearest Woodson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1958 against a peer-group mean of 1964 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 103 Kansas counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elk County | 154 | 37% | 55.8% | 7.1% | 1959 |
| Anderson County | 144 | 34.7% | 61.1% | 4.2% | 1956 |
| Woodson County (this page) | 143 | 37.1% | 54.5% | 8.4% | 1958 |
| Graham County | 142 | 52.8% | 39.4% | 7.7% | 1968 |
| Geary County | 140 | 46.4% | 43.6% | 10% | 1972 |
| Chautauqua County | 130 | 41.5% | 47.7% | 10.8% | 1964 |
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 Woodson 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 Woodson County, both outside Kansas so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KS (143 bridges here).
- Franklin County, AR · 143 bridges
- San Francisco County, CA · 143 bridges
- Adair County, KY · 143 bridges
- Casey County, KY · 143 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KS (1958 here).
- Middlesex County, MA · avg 1958 · 818 bridges
- Bucks County, PA · avg 1958 · 699 bridges
- Butte County, CA · avg 1958 · 437 bridges
- Marin County, CA · avg 1958 · 207 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (53)
DEER RD.
GoodOver: BRANCH SOUTH BIG CREEK
208 10.2N 9.0W US54&75JCT, Woodson, KS
Built 2021 Load: 57.3 t ADT: 30
RS 552 Jay Rd
GoodOver: OWL CREEK
010 1.1N 3.0W JCT US75&54, Woodson, KS
Built 2012 Load: 59.6 t ADT: 140
US54 HWY
GoodOver: UP RR
2.49 MI E US75, Woodson, KS
Built 2016 Load: 61.2 t ADT: 2,270
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.