County profile · official public datasets

Barnwell County, SC

76 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30.3% rated Good, 65.8% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

76
Public bridges: 30.3%
Good condition: 3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Barnwell 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 33%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.9%
Poor-condition share: 76
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.

Barnwell County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Barnwell County ranks #15 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Barnwell County, South Carolina contains 76 public highway bridges. Roughly 30.3% are rated “Good,” 65.8% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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 Barnwell County

Good condition

30.3%

23 of 76 rated 7-9

Fair condition

65.8%

50 of 76 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

3 of 76 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 76 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30.3% (23)

Fair

65.8% (50)

Poor

3.9% (3)

Barnwell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 400 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 133 crossings a day against 1,826 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 76 of 76 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

75% of Barnwell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

57 of the 76 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 43.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S-6-150 over TOBY CREEK, built 1969, carries 175 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 400 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

3
1940s

6
1950s

17
1960s

17
1970s

17
1980s

1
1990s

4
2000s

6
2010s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 17 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 11 years older than the South Carolina average of 1977.

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Barnwell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Barnwell County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bamberg County	80	20%	67.5%	12.5%	1971
Barnwell County (this page)	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
Calhoun County	64	20.3%	73.4%	6.3%	1959

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (76 bridges here).

San Benito County, CA · 76 bridges
Screven County, GA · 76 bridges
Washington County, GA · 76 bridges
Wayne County, KY · 76 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 76 Good 23 Fair 50 Poor 3

All bridges (76)

Sort:

Barnwell County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Barnwell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 400 vehicle crossings a day

75% of Barnwell County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 43.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Barnwell 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 (76)

SC 125

SC 125

S-6-57 & S-6-58

S-6-62

S-6-549

S-6-21

S-6-168

S-6-83

S-6-159

S-6-539

S-6-163

S-6-13

S-6-80

S-6-80

S-6-169

S-6-400

S-6-192

S-6-188

S-6-90

S-6-855

S-6-65

S-6-632

S-6-38

S-6-39

S-6-164

S-6-184

S-6-161

SC 37

US 278

SC 125

S-6-20

S-6-20

S-6-166

S-6-166

S-6-169

S-6-14

S-6-21

S-6-87

S-6-32

S-6-20

SC 64 WB

SC 3

S-6-29

SC 3

SC 3

S-6-36

US 278

S-6-167

S-6-224

SC 64 EB

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