County profile · official public datasets

Calhoun County, SC

64 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20.3% rated Good, 73.4% Fair, 6.3% Poor.

64
Public bridges: 20.3%
Good condition: 6.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Calhoun 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.

29th
of 46 on Poor share: 6.3%
Poor-condition share: 64
public highway bridges: 1959
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.

Calhoun County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Calhoun County ranks #29 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.3%). Calhoun County, South Carolina contains 64 public highway bridges. Roughly 20.3% are rated “Good,” 73.4% “Fair,” and 6.3% “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 Calhoun County

Good condition

20.3%

13 of 64 rated 7-9

Fair condition

73.4%

47 of 64 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.3%

4 of 64 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#29 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 64 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

20.3% (13)

Fair

73.4% (47)

Poor

6.3% (4)

Calhoun County's Poor-condition bridges carry 950 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 238 crossings a day against 1,996 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 64 of 64 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

81.3% of Calhoun County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

52 of the 64 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 20.3% 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 78.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S-9-24 over BATES MILL CREEK, built 1930, carries 750 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 950 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

15
1940s

7
1950s

6
1960s

22
1970s

7
1980s

1
1990s

3
2000s

1
2010s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 34.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1959, 18 years older than the South Carolina average of 1977.

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Calhoun County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1959 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 14 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Calhoun 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	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 (this page)	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 Calhoun 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 Calhoun County, both outside South Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (64 bridges here).

Southeast Fairbanks County, AK · 64 bridges
Delta County, CO · 64 bridges
Sedgwick County, CO · 64 bridges
Hancock County, GA · 64 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1959 here).

Tulare County, CA · avg 1959 · 589 bridges
Barton County, KS · avg 1959 · 449 bridges
Nassau County, NY · avg 1959 · 328 bridges
Marion County, KS · avg 1959 · 324 bridges

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

All 64 Good 13 Fair 47 Poor 4

All bridges (64)

Sort:

Calhoun County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Calhoun County's Poor-condition bridges carry 950 vehicle crossings a day

81.3% of Calhoun County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 78.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Calhoun 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 (64)

SC 172

S-9-16

S-9-58

S-9-16

S-9-157

S-9-80

S-9-256

S-9-287

S-9-90

S-9-86

S-9-72

US 601

S-9-20

S-9-227

SC 267

SC 267

US 176

S-9-418

S-9-22

S-9-266

I-26

S-9-47

US 21

US 176

US 176

S-9-30

S-9-43

S-9-132

S-9-16

S-9-21

SC 6

S-9-22

S-9-22

S-9-35

S-9-16

US 176

I-26

S-9-173

SC 6

I-26

US 176

S-9-127

S-9-31

S-9-41

SC 6

SC 33

I-26

US 21

US 601

SC 419

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