County profile · official public datasets

Chesterfield County, SC

199 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 40.2% rated Good, 54.8% Fair, 5% Poor.

199
Public bridges: 40.2%
Good condition: 5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 46%
lowest Poor share in state: 5%
Poor-condition share: 199
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Chesterfield County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Chesterfield County ranks #21 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5%). Chesterfield County, South Carolina contains 199 public highway bridges. Roughly 40.2% are rated “Good,” 54.8% “Fair,” and 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

199

Public highway bridges in Chesterfield County

Good condition

40.2%

80 of 199 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.8%

109 of 199 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10 of 199 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#21 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 199 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

40.2% (80)

Fair

54.8% (109)

Poor

5% (10)

Chesterfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,300 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 830 crossings a day against 1,081 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 199 of 199 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

49.7% of Chesterfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

99 of the 199 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 40.2% 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 49.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 1 over S.C.L. RAILROAD, built 1962, carries 4,100 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 8,300 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

27
1940s

17
1950s

7
1960s

35
1970s

20
1980s

24
1990s

31
2000s

19
2010s

13
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the South Carolina average (1977).

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Chesterfield County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1977 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 Chesterfield County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cherokee County	199	45.2%	43.7%	11.1%	1983
Chesterfield County (this page)	199	40.2%	54.8%	5%	1974
Aiken County	198	36.9%	53.5%	9.6%	1977
Dorchester County	198	28.8%	69.2%	2%	1972
Williamsburg County	195	38.5%	54.9%	6.7%	1977
Chester County	190	40.5%	50%	9.5%	1976

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (199 bridges here).

Montgomery County, AR · 199 bridges
Warren County, IL · 199 bridges
Dallas County, IA · 199 bridges
Leake County, MS · 199 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 199 Good 80 Fair 109 Poor 10

All bridges (199)

Sort:

Chesterfield County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Chesterfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,300 vehicle crossings a day

49.7% of Chesterfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 49.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Chesterfield 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 (199)

SC 151

S-13-109

S-13-823

S-13-107

S-13-224

S-13-157

S-13-639

S-13-490

S-13-134

S-13-487

S-13-43

S-13-111

S-13-296

S-13-410

S-13-49

S-13-81

S-13-724

S-13-716

S-13-768

C-13-55

S-13-45

S-13-110

S-13-344

S-13-585

S-13-80

S-13-104

S-13-162

S-13-247

S-13-105

S-13-171

S-13-296

S-13-579

S-13-33

S-13-55

S-13-41

S-13-555

S-13-726

S-13-294

S-13-491

S-13-513

S-13-105

S-13-63

SC 102

S-13-23

US 1

SC 265

US 52

US 1

SC 145

S-13-108

Related