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.

When Lexington County's bridges were built

229 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

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).

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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 Poor
Laurens County 259 7.7%
Colleton County 231 1.7%
Lexington County (this page) 229 2.6%
Newberry County 218 5.5%
Berkeley County 216 2.3%
Oconee County 215 14%

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).

Similar average build year

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

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)

C-32-5812

Good

Over: FIRST CREEK

1 MI SW OF PINERIDGE, Lexington, SC

Built 2011 Load: 55.7 t ADT: 150

US 321

Good

Over: BULL SWAMP CREEK

1MI S OF SWANSEA, Lexington, SC

Built 2006 Load: 58.6 t ADT: 4,400

I-20

Good

Over: BLACK CREEK

3MI SE OF GILBERT, Lexington, SC

Built 1970 Load: 60.6 t ADT: 38,600

SC 6

Good

Over: RED BANK CREEK

4 MI S OF LEXINGTON, Lexington, SC

Built 2009 Load: 65.4 t ADT: 26,000

I-77 NB

Good

Over: CONGAREE RIVER OVF #3

3 MI SE SPRINGDALE, Lexington, SC

Built 1984 Load: 65.4 t ADT: 44,750

S-32-273

Good

Over: STOOPS CREEK

5 MI SE IRMO, Lexington, SC

Built 1985 Load: 66.4 t ADT: 14,900

SC 602

Good

Over: SAVANA BRANCH

2MI N OF S CONGAREE, Lexington, SC

Built 1948 Load: 70.6 t ADT: 12,900

S-32-77

Good

Over: LIGHTWOOD KNOT CREEK

6 MI SW OF GILBERT, Lexington, SC

Built 1994 Load: 70.6 t ADT: 1,150

I-26 EB

Good

Over: STREAM

3MI E OF CHAPIN, Lexington, SC

Built 1960 Load: 92.0 t ADT: 25,100

S-32-103

Good

Over: FIRST CREEK

TOWN OF SOUTH CONGAREE, Lexington, SC

Built 2004 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 7,700

I-20

Good

Over: STOOP CREEK

2 MI SE OF SEVEN OAKS, Lexington, SC

Built 1964 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 77,400

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges

Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.