The Obama administration wants to put more people back to work building new bridges, but a new study shows we may want to stick to fixing the roadways we already have.

The Jacksonville area ranked 18th among the nation's top metro areas with deficient bridges.

"And there still are 45 bridges that are rated as 'structurally deficient.'" says David Goldberg with Transportation for America.

He says just under half a million local drivers cross these bridges everyday.

"Doesn't mean that the bridge is going to fall down tomorrow, but it does mean that the bridges need significant attention," says Goldberg.

The data was collected from regional offices for the Department of Transportation, after each office studied their area bridges. The ranking was based on three decision making factors: the Deck (the portion of the bridge you drive over), the Superstructure (the overhead portion of the bridge) and the Substructure (portion of the bridge that's connected to the ground).

Jacksonville's seven main bridges are okay, but crossovers like I-95 through San Marco, University Boulevard over the river, and Edison Avenue at McCoy's Creek did score poorly.

America's bridges generally have a design that can withstand 50-years of use. Right now, one-third of America's bridges are over 50 years old. Overall, Florida was second to Nevada in having the most structurally sound bridges in America. Goldberg says that's because Florida doesn't have as much infrastructure as northern states and our weather is kinder to what we've built.

Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Iowa ranked as the top three states with the most deficient bridges. Goldberg says the federal government is too focussed on building new bridges, rather than fixing outdated ones. He says we're not prepared as a country for another disaster like the deadly 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse.

"If we don't have the money in an account ready to fix the bridge, and we find a major problem on it, we are in big trouble," says Goldberg.

See the interactive map and the full report at the Transportation for America website.