The two bridges not only sit at opposite sides of Hall County, but they are opposites on a state rating scale that indicates structural integrity and other factors.

The bridge at Friendship Road and Interstate 985 has a 100 sufficiency rating, based on a 0-100 scale, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation's bridges database.

"It is in great shape — it earned its score," said Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the DOT's Gainesville-based District 1, which includes Hall.

And Cobb Street at Norfolk-Southern Railroad in Lula has a 15.79.

Traffic is whizzing along the Friendship Road bridge, and, according to Lula City Manager Dennis Bergin, the Cobb Street bridge is closed, awaiting repairs.

Overall, a review of Hall County's bridges — including ones on state and local roads — show that 10 of them, or 7.5 percent, have a score of 40 or below, with 40 the baseline at which the state begins to consider bridge replacement.

Three of those cross Lake Lanier: Ga. 53/Dawsonville Highway at the Chestatee River, Ga. 369/Browns Bridge Road at the Chattahoochee River and U.S. 129/Cleveland Highway at East Fork Little River.

Another nine bridges, or nearly 6.8 percent, have a rating between 40 and 50, with 50 or below considered "structurally deficient," which means the structure becomes eligible for limited federal funding for rehabilitation or replacement.

So, the total number of Hall bridges with a score of 50 or lower is 19, or 14.3 percent.

By comparison, 941 of the state's 14,649 bridges, or 6.4 percent, are structurally deficient, said David Spear, press secretary for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Also, 79 of Hall's bridges, or 59 percent, have a score of 90 or above.

Among those with such a high rating are two Lanier bridges: the eastbound structure at Dawsonville Highway at the Chattahoochee and the southbound structure at Ga. 60/Thompson Bridge Road at the Chattahoochee.

Both of those bridges were built in 1992.

The DOT inspects bridges every two years and sends a report to local officials, which, in turn, use the list to help determine what improvements they need to make.

"The earliest (Norfolk-Southern) can start on (repairs) is February," Bergin said of the Cobb Street bridge, which is downtown. "They are responsible for maintaining that bridge.

"There are about five items that need attention and one of them is we've got a beam settling ... and then we've got two supporting columns that need to be replaced," he added.

The DOT report "is definitely one of the factors taken into consideration as the county determines the repair and replacement of bridges and culverts," said Hall County Engineer Kevin McInturff.

"Other factors that must be taken into consideration are traffic volume, peak stormwater flows, type of traffic and whether there is significant heavy industrial or school-type traffic, right-of-way and easement availability and funding availability," he said.

"If there are two equally deteriorated culverts, the culvert that has higher traffic volumes and/or heavier traffic loadings will take a priority over the culvert with lower volumes."

A culvert is like a pipe that allows water to flow through and provides a crossing for traffic.

The Mangum Mill culvert at Pond Fork Creek was replaced last year, McInturff said.

The county also is planning work next year on Bryant Quarters Road at North Oconee River and Joe Chandler Road at North Oconee River.

McEver Road at Big Creek "is probably our biggest project currently under way," McInturff said.

The $675,560 effort also involves a culvert project. Funding will come from the county's special purpose local option sales taxes and the state's Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant.