County profile · official public datasets

Kay County, OK

419 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30.3% rated Good, 63.7% Fair, 6% Poor.

419
Public bridges: 30.3%
Good condition: 6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Kay County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 6%
Poor-condition share: 419
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Kay County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kay County ranks #33 of 77 Oklahoma counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6%). Kay County, Oklahoma contains 419 public highway bridges. Roughly 30.3% are rated “Good,” 63.7% “Fair,” and 6% “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

419

Public highway bridges in Kay County

Good condition

30.3%

127 of 419 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.7%

267 of 419 rated 5-6

Poor condition

25 of 419 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#33 of 77

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

Condition distribution

Share of 419 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30.3% (127)

Fair

63.7% (267)

Poor

6% (25)

Kay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,592 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 584 crossings a day against 1,706 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 419 of 419 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

48.7% of Kay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

204 of the 419 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 30.3% 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 23.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

U.S. 60 over CHIKASKIA RIVER, built 1973, carries 3,400 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 14,592 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

6
1920s

12
1930s

28
1940s

23
1950s

57
1960s

51
1970s

35
1980s

27
1990s

27
2000s

44
2010s

82
2020s

27

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 82 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Oklahoma average (1977).

How Kay County compares with Oklahoma's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Oklahoma counties nearest Kay County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 76 Oklahoma counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kay County and the 5 Oklahoma counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Caddo County	424	24.1%	63.4%	12.5%	1979
Kay County (this page)	419	30.3%	63.7%	6%	1979
Pittsburg County	411	47.2%	45%	7.8%	1971
Pottawatomie County	408	21.6%	72.1%	6.4%	1982
Muskogee County	398	37.7%	52.3%	10.1%	1971
Creek County	395	40.5%	38.7%	20.8%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OK (419 bridges here).

Taylor County, TX · 419 bridges
Lewis County, WA · 419 bridges
Santa Barbara County, CA · 418 bridges
Lucas County, OH · 418 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OK (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 419 Good 127 Fair 267 Poor 25

Good-condition bridges (127)

Sort:

Kay County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,592 vehicle crossings a day

48.7% of Kay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 23.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kay County compares with Oklahoma'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 (127)

U.S. 60

E0230

N3140

E0210

N3270

E0210

N3160

E0060

E0200

E0270

E0156

D3402

E0110

N3230

E0100

E0160

E0180

E0030

N3260

IRR E0230

E0090

E0030

E0194 DONNER AVE

E0203 EMPORIA

E0203 (L.A. CANN)

N3310 (WAVERLY ST)

N3310 (WAVERLY ST)

N3337 (EL CAMINO)

S.H. 11

U.S. 60 BUS

I-35

I-35

U.S. 60 W.B.

U.S. 60 E.B.

E0060

E0210

E0210

U.S. 60

FOUNTAIN ROAD

I-35

S.H. 11

S.H. 11 E.B.

S.H. 11 W.B.

N3120

N3200

U.S. 77

D0221

IRR E0230

S.H. 156

E0280

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