CDOT answers your questions about crumbling bridges and where all the FASTER money is going to

DENVER -- We told you about some of the worst structurally deficient bridges in the state on Tuesday and how Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials say the agency needs a voter-approved tax increase to help fix them all.

Since then, dozens of you reached out to Denver7 with more questions and other bridge locations to check out, so we took your questions directly to CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford.

One Denver7 viewer sent us an email wanting to know more about the proposed tax hike and why it wasn't done sooner.

"How many times has CDOT asked for a tax increase to fix bridges in the last 20 years?" asked Denver7 Reporter Jennifer Kovaleski.

"Never," Ford responded.

"Why?" asked Kovaleski.

"Because one of the things that we have to have is the public to agree with us," said Ford. "In Colorado, we obviously have TABOR where the public must agree to any kind of taxing increase and I think sort of the political will to move in that sort of direction wasn't there at the time."

Another Denver7 viewer asked us to check out a bridge at I-70 and 20th Avenue in Golden where he said wood was being used underneath the bridge to support it.

Ford said that is normal, and not uncommon.

"Wood is just a good substitute and good work product for us to be able to keep the safety of the bridges," she said.

Another person sent us an email asking how much money CDOT has generated from FASTER funding, which increased your vehicle registration fees in 2009 to help pay for bad bridges.

CDOT officials said they get around $100 million a year which has helped pay to replace 200 bridges -- but CDOT maintains more than 6,000 across the state.

"We are hundreds of millions of dollars away from repairing all of our bridges," said Ford.