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Engineer-Manager Robb Falls reported the bridge inspector had just informed them of a possible problem with the French Line - Ruth Road Bridge over Elk Creek.

"I looked at it, Dale (Stolicker, assistant engineer-manager) looked at it and I talked to Bob (Wellington, highway consultant). Our recommendation is you post it at 20 tons gross until we can do a study to determine what is a safe limit. It's kind of an emergency at this time," Falls stated.

The 26-year-old bridge deck has become slightly bowed.

Last month the highway consultant reviewed the status of local bridges in light of the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis.

"Sanilac County has 148 bridges and two are structurally deficient. We applied for critical bridge funding two years ago," Wellington reported in August.

The commissioners authorized Falls to attend a regional funding meeting in Midland to find out if the county is scheduled to receive critical bridge money for those two bridges in 2011.

One of the deficient bridges is the nearly 80-year-old Stilson Road Bridge east of Kilgore Road in Buel Township, which is posted with weight limits of 15-21-30 tons.

The other one is the Babcock Road Bridge south of Wellman Line Road in Worth Township. It is posted for 36 tons.

Construction crews are replacing a bridge on Galbraith Line Road, and just completed one on Todd Road. The Galbraith Line Bridge is scheduled to be finished on Nov. 14.

The state is also repairing two bridges on M-46 and M-19.

Last week the road board also approved spending $4,910 to repair and patch the Snover Road Bridge over the South Branch of the Cass River in Moore Township. McDowell & Associates of Columbiaville will do the work this fall.

Wellington also suggested they look at building asphalt bridge decks instead of concrete.

"Over the last 20 years we used a lot of critical federal funds to do bridges and put them in with concrete decks. In my opinion that is over building because we do not see 20,000 cars per year. Sometimes it is easier to repair asphalt decks. Robb and I will start some programs next year to address that. Gravel gets dragged up on the decks and they go to pot," he explained.