County profile · official public datasets

Lexington County, SC

229 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.5% rated Good, 48.9% Fair, 2.6% Poor.

229
Public bridges: 48.5%
Good condition: 2.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Lexington County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 24%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.6%
Poor-condition share: 229
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Lexington County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lexington County ranks #11 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Lexington County, South Carolina contains 229 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.5% are rated “Good,” 48.9% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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

229

Public highway bridges in Lexington County

Good condition

48.5%

111 of 229 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.9%

112 of 229 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.6%

6 of 229 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#11 of 46

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

Condition distribution

Share of 229 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

48.5% (111)

Fair

48.9% (112)

Poor

2.6% (6)

Lexington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 64,225 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 10,704 crossings a day against 12,432 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 229 of 229 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.7% of Lexington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

84 of the 229 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 48.5% 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

US 1 over I-20, built 1965, carries 28,100 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 64,225 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

7
1930s

5
1940s

11
1950s

19
1960s

25
1970s

45
1980s

30
1990s

30
2000s

31
2010s

19
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 45 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the South Carolina average (1977).

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

The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Lexington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Lexington County and the 5 South Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Laurens County	259	32.8%	59.5%	7.7%	1974
Colleton County	231	35.9%	62.3%	1.7%	1971
Lexington County (this page)	229	48.5%	48.9%	2.6%	1981
Newberry County	218	31.7%	62.8%	5.5%	1974
Berkeley County	216	34.7%	63%	2.3%	1979
Oconee County	215	32.6%	53.5%	14%	1971

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside SC (229 bridges here).

Walton County, FL · 229 bridges
Aroostook County, ME · 229 bridges
Stearns County, MN · 229 bridges
Itawamba County, MS · 229 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside SC (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Shawnee County, KS · avg 1981 · 563 bridges

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

All 229 Good 111 Fair 112 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (111)

Sort:

Lexington County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lexington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 64,225 vehicle crossings a day

36.7% of Lexington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

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

How Lexington 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 (111)

S-32-235

S-32-28

S-32-774

S-32-1241

S-32-1814

S-32-158

RAMP ON I-26 EB

SC 6

SC 602

S-32-486

S-32-415

SC 35

S-32-239

S-32-104

S-32-671

US 178

I-26

S-32-127

S-32-268

S-32-631

L-5610

S-32-272

S-32-1171

S-32-604

S-32-602

SC 2

L-32-5890

I-26

S-32-1287

S-32-413

S-32-54

SC 692

S-32-301

SC 302

I-26 WB

S-32-647

S-32-175

S-32-485

RAMP ON I-26 WB

S-32-49

S-32-689

S-32-516

S-32-45

S-32-624

S-32-1466

S-32-671

RAMP ON I-26 EB

SC 602

S-32-1140

S-32-37

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