The following in-depth article is a good overview of the funding crisis facing counties across the state.

The elegant steel bridge carrying Speaker Road over Mill Creek may be in the middle of nowhere to most people, but it's important to David Beard of Lynn Township.

The 46-year-old lives about a half mile west of the bridge, which he crosses almost every other day to work and to visit his 8-year-old daughter.

His daughter loves the bridge, which she calls "the big bridge."

"She likes to stop, look at the water and throw stones into the water," Beard said.

Last week, after 10 years of competing for state funds to replace the bridge and another four years wrangling through historic preservation of the structure, county officials finally closed the span. The bridge's posted weight load had been lowered to 10 tons, and county officials felt they could not safely lower it any more.

Sanilac County officials said they are able to keep up and replace the bridges that need it most, but officials in St. Clair County, which has 220 bridges - one of the highest number of bridges in the state - said bridges age faster than they can be fixed.