County profile · official public datasets

Anderson County, SC

463 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29.6% rated Good, 65.7% Fair, 4.8% Poor.

463
Public bridges: 29.6%
Good condition: 4.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.8%
Poor-condition share: 463
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Anderson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Anderson County ranks #20 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.8%). Anderson County, South Carolina contains 463 public highway bridges. Roughly 29.6% are rated “Good,” 65.7% “Fair,” and 4.8% “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

463

Public highway bridges in Anderson County

Good condition

29.6%

137 of 463 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.7%

304 of 463 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.8%

22 of 463 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#20 of 46

Among South Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 463 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

29.6% (137)

Fair

65.7% (304)

Poor

4.8% (22)

Anderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 58,500 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,659 crossings a day against 2,603 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 463 of 463 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

63.7% of Anderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

295 of the 463 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 29.6% 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 14.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 76 WBL over EIGHTEEN MILE CREEK, built 1961, carries 8,450 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 58,500 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

7
1930s

17
1940s

15
1950s

81
1960s

153
1970s

47
1980s

48
1990s

43
2000s

30
2010s

19
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 153 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 6 years older than the South Carolina average of 1977.

How Anderson County compares with South Carolina's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Anderson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 12 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 45 South Carolina counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Anderson County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Greenville County	635	56.7%	35.4%	7.9%	1981
Horry County	479	50.1%	46.1%	3.8%	1986
Anderson County (this page)	463	29.6%	65.7%	4.8%	1971
Richland County	361	50.1%	46%	3.9%	1979
Charleston County	336	37.8%	59.8%	2.4%	1988
Pickens County	291	48.1%	42.6%	9.3%	1979

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 Anderson 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 Anderson County, both outside South Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (463 bridges here).

Calcasieu County, LA · 463 bridges
Darke County, OH · 463 bridges
Jefferson County, CO · 464 bridges
Hamilton County, TN · 464 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 463 Good 137 Fair 304 Poor 22

All bridges (463)

Sort:

Anderson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Anderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 58,500 vehicle crossings a day

63.7% of Anderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 14.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Anderson County compares with South Carolina's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (463)

C-4-785

S-4-83

S-4-207

S-4-115

S-4-751

S-4-57

SC 184

SC 81

S-4-246

S-4-280

C-4-983

SC 20

US 29 BUS

US 76 EBL

S-4-41

C-4-156

C-4-29

I-85 NBL

C-4-9797

S-4-29

S-4-1012

C-4-839

C-4-93

C-4-616

S-4-933

C-4-7464

C-4-2068

S-4-17

S-4-71

SC 88

C-4-2138

C-4-265

I-85 NBL

I-85 NBL

I-85 SBL

I-85 SBL

S-4-117

S-4-85

S-4-254

SC 28

C-4-156

C-4-1149

SC 20

US 29

US 29

SC 86

S-4-74

S-4-164

C-4-247

S-4-75

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