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MACON, MO. -- Many people drive across bridges every day. With other 25,000 bridges in the state of Missouri, many of them are structurally deficient.

According to a national safety report, Missouri ranks 7th in the country for structurally deficient bridges.

MoDOT engineer Paula Gough tells us they are aware of the issue and continuing to curb this problem.

"Missouri takes that very seriously and our staff goes out and inspects all those bridges," Gough said. "And every year we have items that we find that are minor in nature and our maintenance staff is able to go out and fix, address, and keep that bridge in good shape."

MoDOT engineers tell KTVO they do yearly preventative maintenance on bridges. They also use a 0 to 9 numerical rating system.

Gough says all states rank their bridges on the sam numerical scale. Bridge inspectors consider the the amount of wear, rust, and alignment among other structural factors in measuring structurally sound bridges.

"There's over 100 different components that our bridge inspectors look at. But when we talk about some of the critical components we look at 3 main areas on the bridge," Gough said,

Inspectors look at the deck, the area you drive on, the superstructure which is immediately below what you drive on, and the substructure the part that goes into the water and holds the bridge up."

Gough says if bridges are open they are safe. If inspectors suspect something is not structurally adequate they will immediately close down the bridge.

MoDOT engineers tell us every single person is impacted by transportation. They say it's important for MoDOT to continue to have a robust and safe transportation system.