LANSING – The 10 most structurally deficient bridges in Michigan may be located in urban areas, but some rural counties have the highest number of bridges in bad shape, according to a new report issued by Transportation for America.

In “The Fix We’re In For: The State of Michigan’s Bridges” only four out of Michigan’s 83 counties had no structurally deficient bridges (Otsego, Montmorency, Leelanau and Keweenaw). Bridges are judged in three areas: the substructure, superstructure and deck and one of those has to show a “major defect” to be rated structurally deficient.

Statewide there are 1,437 structurally deficient bridges out of 10,928, or 13.1 percent. Michigan ranks 13th worst in the nation.

“There are not 1,400 bridges that are imminently about to fall down. If the bridge is open, the bridge is safe,” said Department of Transportation Director Kirk Steudle, who participated in a conference call with reporters along with representatives from the Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association.

If there is an immediate condition that makes a bridge unsafe for travel, the state will, and has, shut a bridge down, he said. Bridges are inspected on an annual basis and those showing heavier signs of wear are put on a three or six-month watch list.

The department has placed a high priority on bridge repair, which the report highlighted.

“Michigan has some of the best practices in the nation in terms of aggressively maintaining what we do have,” said CeCe Grant with Transportation for America.

But several figures in the report were staggering. One in every eight bridges a motorist crosses each day has some “degree of deterioration.”

The top 10 structurally deficient bridges were located mainly along major highways in Wayne, Oakland and Genesee counties, with all but one bridge seeing annual daily traffic above 70,000.

While traffic was substantially lower in rural counties, there are a higher number of structurally deficient bridges based on percentage. Missaukee County led with 13 of its 42 bridges deemed structurally deficient (the average annual daily traffic on those bridges was 5,000).

Mason, Kalkaska, Cass and Alger counties, with 173 bridges total, rounded out the top five for the most bridges in the poorest condition with all of those above 25 percent. Wayne County, in comparison, had 10 percent of its 1,021 bridges rated structurally deficient.

On the state level, 9 percent of bridges are structurally deficient.

Funding both on the federal and state level continues to be a problem. While most bridges are designed to last 50 years, the nation’s infrastructure saw its major boom about 50 years ago, Mr. Steudle said. The average age of a bridge in Michigan is 41.3 years.

On the federal level, it’s estimated that to eliminate the backlog of poor bridges, Congress would have to spend $70.9 billion. As of 2009, Congress had allocated $5.2 billion.

Michigan spends all of its federal bridge money on bridge repair, spending $166 million in 2010, which was about 20.5 percent of all its federal transportation dollars. The national average is 13 percent.

While officials from the MML and MITA said the state has done the best it can with the resources available, stable transportation funding has to be a long-term priority both at the state and federal level.

“If you have a bad road, you may blow out a shock absorber. But if you are driving over a bad bridge it could be fatal,” said Keith Ledbetter, director of legislative affairs for MITA.

Arnold Weinfeld, director of strategic and federal affairs for MML, noted the federal transportation authorization expired nearly 18 months ago and Congress has been spending based on a number of extensions to the program.

State lawmakers also have not acted to increase transportation infrastructure dollars since the gasoline tax was raised in 1997.

“We understand that in the current environment the focus is on less government spending,” Grant said. “But we think in terms of safety (it) has to have a priority over budget cutbacks.”

A House subcommittee was recently tasked with looking at long-term funding issues regarding transportation.

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