County profile · official public datasets

Lee County, SC

91 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46.2% rated Good, 51.6% Fair, 2.2% Poor.

91
Public bridges: 46.2%
Good condition: 2.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lee County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 13%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.2%
Poor-condition share: 91
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Lee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lee County ranks #6 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.2%). Lee County, South Carolina contains 91 public highway bridges. Roughly 46.2% are rated “Good,” 51.6% “Fair,” and 2.2% “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

Public highway bridges in Lee County

Good condition

46.2%

42 of 91 rated 7-9

Fair condition

51.6%

47 of 91 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.2%

2 of 91 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#6 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 91 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

46.2% (42)

Fair

51.6% (47)

Poor

2.2% (2)

Lee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 250 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 125 crossings a day against 818 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 91 of 91 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.7% of Lee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

48 of the 91 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 46.2% 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 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S-31-311 over TIB STONEY RUN CREEK, built 1957, carries 125 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 250 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

8
1950s

3
1960s

9
1970s

25
1980s

3
1990s

10
2000s

11
2010s

15
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 25 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 6 years newer than the South Carolina average of 1977.

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Lee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lee County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Marion County	112	34.8%	60.7%	4.5%	1974
Marlboro County	96	40.6%	53.1%	6.3%	1971
Lee County (this page)	91	46.2%	51.6%	2.2%	1983
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

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (91 bridges here).

Baxter County, AR · 91 bridges
Breckinridge County, KY · 91 bridges
Reynolds County, MO · 91 bridges
Dawes County, NE · 91 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 91 Good 42 Fair 47 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (42)

Sort:

Lee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 250 vehicle crossings a day

52.7% of Lee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lee 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 (42)

S-31-99

US 15

S-31-102

S-31-262

S-31-31

S-31-234

C-31-113

US 401

S-31-73

S-31-162

S-31-53

SC 34

S-31-37

S-31-221

S-31-221

S-31-36

S-31-108

S-31-31

S-31-53

US 76

S-31-109

S-31-108

S-31-99

US 15

SC 34

S-31-32

S-31-378

S-31-50

S-31-106

S-31-104

S-31-76

S-31-39

S-31-71

S-31-313

S-31-52

S-31-29

S-31-204

S-31-600

S-31-313

S-31-37

S-31-231

SC 154

Related