County profile · official public datasets

Bamberg County, SC

80 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20% rated Good, 67.5% Fair, 12.5% Poor.

80
Public bridges: 20%
Good condition: 12.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bamberg 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.

42nd
of 46 on Poor share: 12.5%
Poor-condition share: 80
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.

Bamberg County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bamberg County ranks #42 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.5%). Bamberg County, South Carolina contains 80 public highway bridges. Roughly 20% are rated “Good,” 67.5% “Fair,” and 12.5% “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 Bamberg County

Good condition

20%

16 of 80 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.5%

54 of 80 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.5%

10 of 80 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#42 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 80 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

20% (16)

Fair

67.5% (54)

Poor

12.5% (10)

Bamberg County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,925 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 293 crossings a day against 950 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 80 of 80 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.8% of Bamberg County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

55 of the 80 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 20% 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 29.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S-5-20 over SOUTH EDISTO RIVER, built 1971, carries 850 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,925 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

5
1940s

4
1950s

16
1960s

12
1970s

23
1980s

3
1990s

3
2000s

8
2010s

4
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 6 years older than the South Carolina average of 1977.

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Bamberg County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bamberg County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lee County	91	46.2%	51.6%	2.2%	1983
Bamberg County (this page)	80	20%	67.5%	12.5%	1971
Barnwell County	76	30.3%	65.8%	3.9%	1966
Beaufort County	72	36.1%	59.7%	4.2%	1988
Allendale County	69	23.2%	63.8%	13%	1968
McCormick County	68	42.6%	57.4%	0%	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 Bamberg 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 Bamberg County, both outside South Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (80 bridges here).

Moffat County, CO · 80 bridges
Burke County, GA · 80 bridges
Gooding County, ID · 80 bridges
Madison County, ID · 80 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 80 Good 16 Fair 54 Poor 10

All bridges (80)

Sort:

Bamberg County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bamberg County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,925 vehicle crossings a day

68.8% of Bamberg County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 29.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bamberg 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 (80)

S-5-61

S-5-449

US 601

S-5-21

S-5-442

S-5-19

S-5-37

S-5-382

S-5-42

S-5-42

US 301 SB

S-5-32

S-5-190

S-5-390

S-5-85

S-5-537

US 321

US 321

US 301 NB

S-5-49

US 321

S-5-34

S-5-20

S-5-31

S-5-20

S-5-20

US 78

S-5-33

S-5-84

S-5-84

US 321

S-5-26

S-5-26

S-5-567

US 601

S-5-84

S-5-84

S-5-84

S-5-84

US 78

US 78

SC 64

S-5-23

US 21

S-5-18

S-5-49

SC 70

S-5-20

S-5-31

S-5-76

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