(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina has a lot of aging bridges in need of repair or replacing, but Transportation Secretary Gene Conti said the funding is not there to fix them at the rate needed. He said the DOT will probably start combining projects to speed up the process.

"We may award, say, 10 bridges to one contractor if they are very similar types of construction, get one designed and then have the contractor build that same bridge in several different places," said Conti.

He added that a significant number of North Carolina's approximately 14,000 bridges need work or replacing. "We need to replace or improve, if not fully replace about 400 of those bridges a year and our current rate, or recent rate, has been in the low 100 range."

(Thanks to: WWNC)