PIERRE, S.D.(WNAX)- Making timely repairs to bridges helps keep them in service longer.

The South Dakota Transportation Commission got an update on the conditions of state bridges at their meeting Thursday.

Director of Planning and Engineering, Mike Behm said there are about fifty seven hundred bridges in the state.

Behm says they are seeing the useful life of bridges extended.

Behm says many of those bridges fall into the same age range.

Behm said all bridges, from townships to the interstates, are important to the state’s economy.