Total bridges
166
Public highway bridges in Sumter County
County profile · official public datasets
Sumter County, SC
166 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44% rated Good, 45.2% Fair, 10.8% Poor.
- 166
- Public bridges
- 44%
- Good condition
- 10.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Sumter County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 40th
- of 46 on Poor share
- 10.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 166
- 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.
Sumter County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Sumter County ranks #40 of 46 South Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.8%). Sumter County, South Carolina contains 166 public highway bridges. Roughly 44% are rated “Good,” 45.2% “Fair,” and 10.8% “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.
Good condition
44%
73 of 166 rated 7-9
Fair condition
45.2%
75 of 166 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.8%
18 of 166 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#40 of 46
Among South Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 166 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 44% (73)
Fair 45.2% (75)
Poor 10.8% (18)
Sumter County's Poor-condition bridges carry 107,575 vehicle crossings a day
That is 14.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5,976 crossings a day against 2,424 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 166 of 166 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
43.4% of Sumter County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
72 of the 166 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 44% 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 32.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I-95 over HOPE SWAMP, built 1967, carries 35,000 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 18-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 107,575 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Sumter County's bridges were built
166 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 6
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
18 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
15 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
18 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
16 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
32 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
22 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
21 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the South Carolina average (1977).
How Sumter County compares with South Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 South Carolina counties nearest Sumter County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.8% Poor share is the 5th-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.
| 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 | 174 | 39.7% | 55.2% | 5.2% | 1978 |
| Clarendon County | 170 | 25.3% | 72.9% | 1.8% | 1976 |
| Sumter County (this page) | 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 Sumter 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 Sumter County, both outside South Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside SC (166 bridges here).
- Clay County, IL · 166 bridges
- Trego County, KS · 166 bridges
- Bay County, MI · 166 bridges
- Pontotoc County, MS · 166 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.
Fair-condition bridges (75)
L-43-4301
FairOver: GREEN SWAMP
2 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1994 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 225
SC 120
FairOver: CANE SAVANNAH CREEK
4 MI SW OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1971 Load: 36.0 t ADT: 6,000
S-43-59
FairOver: I-95
9 MI E MAYESVILLE, Sumter, SC
Built 1967 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 275
US 76 EB
FairOver: WATEREE RIVER SWP-2
12 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 2009 Load: 38.2 t ADT: 9,550
US 76/ US 378
FairOver: RR SCL ABANDONED
TOWN OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1958 Load: 38.6 t ADT: 13,100
US 76 WB
FairOver: WATEREE RIVER SWP-3
14 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1970 Load: 38.9 t ADT: 9,550
S-43-33
FairOver: GREEN SWAMP
2 MI SW OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 2003 Load: 38.9 t ADT: 8,600
US 378 WB
FairOver: BLACK RIVER SWAMP (NO. 1
10 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 2006 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 5,750
US 378 WB
FairOver: BLACK RIVER SWAMP (NO. 2
10 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 2006 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 5,750
US 76 WB
FairOver: WATEREE RIVER SWP-1
12 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1970 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 9,550
US 76 WB
FairOver: WATEREE RIVER SWP-2
12 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1970 Load: 39.2 t ADT: 9,550
US 76
FairOver: BLACK RIVER SWAMP
1 MI NE OF MAYESVILLE, Sumter, SC
Built 2004 Load: 40.2 t ADT: 1,600
US 76 EB
FairOver: WATEREE RIVER SWP-3
12 MI W OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 2009 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 9,550
US 378 EB
FairOver: BLACK RIVER SWAMP (NO. 1
10 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1972 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 5,750
US 378 EB
FairOver: BLACK RIVER SWAMP (NO. 2
10 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1972 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 5,750
S-43-25
FairOver: CANE SAVANNAH CREEK
3 MI SW OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1997 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 6,000
I-95
FairOver: DOUGLAS SWAMP
20 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1967 Load: 42.8 t ADT: 35,500
S-43-105
FairOver: ROCKY BLUFF SWAMP
6 MI N SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1996 Load: 43.1 t ADT: 800
S-43-57
FairOver: BLACK RIVER #2
3 MI SE OF MAYESVILLE, Sumter, SC
Built 1999 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 275
S-43-150
FairOver: DOUGLAS SWAMP
14 MI SE OF MAYESVILLE, Sumter, SC
Built 1999 Load: 43.7 t ADT: 350
US 521
FairOver: RR CSXT
CITY OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1981 Load: 44.1 t ADT: 20,600
S-43-43
FairOver: BRACEY MILL CREEK
4 MI E OF REMBERT, Sumter, SC
Built 1987 Load: 44.1 t ADT: 900
SC 120
FairOver: SECOND MILL POND
TOWN OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1964 Load: 47.6 t ADT: 24,200
I-95
FairOver: PUDDING SWAMP
18 MI E OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1967 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 35,000
US 521
FairOver: SHOT POUCH BRANCH
1 MI NW OF SUMTER, Sumter, SC
Built 1977 Load: 55.1 t ADT: 24,300
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
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.