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.

Total bridges

166

Public highway bridges in Sumter County

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.

1920s

2
1930s

6
1940s

18
1950s

15
1960s

18
1970s

16
1980s

16
1990s

32
2000s

22
2010s

21

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.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Sumter 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	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.

All 166 Good 73 Fair 75 Poor 18

All bridges (166)

Sort:

Sumter County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Sumter County's Poor-condition bridges carry 107,575 vehicle crossings a day

43.4% of Sumter County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 32.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Sumter 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

All bridges (166)

S-43-105

S-43-46

US 521 NB

S-43-78

S-43-78

S-43-61

S-43-263

S-43-61

US 76 EB

US 378 WB

S-43-101

S-43-692

US 76

US 378 EB

US 401

S-43-346

S-43-29

S-43-251

S-43-57

S-43-601

S-43-401

S-43-531

S-43-341

S-43-412

S-43-32

S-43-82

S-43-1322

S-43-673

S-43-290

US 76

S-43-81

S-43-255

S-43-59

S-43-204

S-43-59

S-43-32

S-43-32

S-43-528

S-43-81

S-43-341

S-43-458

S-43-35

S-43-81

S-43-532

S-43-44

S-43-258

US 521

S-43-375

US 76

US 15 SB

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