County profile · official public datasets

Kershaw County, SC

174 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.7% rated Good, 55.2% Fair, 5.2% Poor.

174
Public bridges: 39.7%
Good condition: 5.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 50%
lowest Poor share in state: 5.2%
Poor-condition share: 174
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Kershaw County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kershaw County ranks #23 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.2%). Kershaw County, South Carolina contains 174 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.7% are rated “Good,” 55.2% “Fair,” and 5.2% “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

174

Public highway bridges in Kershaw County

Good condition

39.7%

69 of 174 rated 7-9

Fair condition

55.2%

96 of 174 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.2%

9 of 174 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#23 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 174 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

39.7% (69)

Fair

55.2% (96)

Poor

5.2% (9)

Kershaw County's Poor-condition bridges carry 84,750 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 9,417 crossings a day against 2,956 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 174 of 174 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

56.3% of Kershaw County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

98 of the 174 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 39.7% 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 24.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-20 EB over WATEREE SWP OVERFLOW (1), built 1970, carries 21,100 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 84,750 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

10
1940s

9
1950s

18
1960s

35
1970s

34
1980s

3
1990s

20
2000s

18
2010s

22
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the South Carolina average (1977).

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Kershaw County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.2% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 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 Kershaw County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lancaster County	181	29.3%	58%	12.7%	1967
Darlington County	174	32.8%	62.1%	5.2%	1974
Kershaw County (this page)	174	39.7%	55.2%	5.2%	1978
Clarendon County	170	25.3%	72.9%	1.8%	1976
Sumter County	166	44%	45.2%	10.8%	1981
Abbeville County	163	41.1%	55.8%	3.1%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (174 bridges here).

Hempstead County, AR · 174 bridges
Eagle County, CO · 174 bridges
Washington County, IN · 174 bridges
Lac qui Parle County, MN · 174 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 174 Good 69 Fair 96 Poor 9

Good-condition bridges (69)

Sort:

Kershaw County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kershaw County's Poor-condition bridges carry 84,750 vehicle crossings a day

56.3% of Kershaw County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 24.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kershaw 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

Good-condition bridges (69)

S-28-549

S-28-313

S-28-451

S-28-23

S-28-148

S-28-12

S-28-20

S-28-87

SC 903

S-28-549

S-28-59

S-28-47

S-28-37

S-28-48

S-28-695

S-28-19

S-28-5

S-28-698

SC 97

S-28-18

SC 97

S-28-20

S-28-102

S-28-147

S-28-101

S-28-42

S-28-42

S-28-129

S-28-549

S-28-621

S-28-349

S-28-15

US 521

S-28-1015

S-28-367

S-28-140

S-28-505

S-28-101

S-28-26

S-28-36

S-28-303

US 1

SC 97

I-20 WB

S-28-58

S-28-45

US 1

S-28-132

S-28-21

S-28-40

Related