The projects in Gov. Mark Dayton’s $6 billion road and bridge plan would cost as little as $40,000 — or as much as $482 million, new numbers released Monday show.

The list of 600-plus projects was released two weeks ago, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation didn’t say how much each one might cost until Monday.

Dayton wants lawmakers to approve new taxes on gasoline and motor vehicles to pay for the road projects, but faces stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The fight over transportation funding could be the biggest clash of this year’s legislative session.

However the politics shake out, MnDOT officials say they can spend whatever lawmakers give them. Mark B. Nelson, MnDOT’s manager of statewide planning and data analysis, said the department could have made an even longer list of road projects, but is confident that with $6 billion in funding, they can finish the 600-plus projects detailed Monday in the next 10 years — “barring any unforeseen natural disaster, unanticipated acceleration or system deterioration or significant increase in cost beyond forecast inflation.”

“Of course, there’s no 100 percent guarantee,” Nelson said. But, he said, “we’re confident in this list.”

OUTSTATE BENEFITS

Most of the money in Dayton’s plan would flow to Greater Minnesota, though the Twin Cities metro area would get several of the most expensive projects.

On tap for metro roads: $500 million or more in new pavement and bridges on Interstate 94 between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, and another $500 million or more for new MnPASS lanes on Interstate 494, Interstate 35W, U.S. Highway 169 and Minnesota Highway 36.

Still, hundreds of smaller projects around the state would combine for far more money in the governor’s controversial 10-year plan. The seven-county metro region would get between 27 and 36 percent of the road and bridge money tied to specific counties despite having more than half the state’s population.

A separate part of Dayton’s plan would pay for several billion dollars in metro-area transit improvements, but that would be paid for by a sales tax imposed only in the seven-county metro region. His $6 billion in road and bridge work would come from higher taxes on gasoline and motor vehicles.

These 600-plus projects are in addition to MnDOT’s already planned road work over the next decade, which includes maintenance and repair as well as new projects such as additional MnPASS lanes on on I-35E and I-35W.

MnDOT officials said the extra money Dayton wants would extend the life of Minnesota’s roads and bridges in a more permanent fashion than the department can do with its current funding.

“We know where it’s going, and it’s not good. We do too many short-term fixes because we can’t let roads get to a certain condition from the public’s perspective. But we know we are not doing the best fixes,” said Mark B. Nelson, manager of statewide planning and data analysis. Nelson was reserved as he explained the cost estimates but said the idea of long-term road improvements “makes me happy.”

GOP CHALLENGES

Dayton’s plan faces an uncertain future, since Republicans have criticized the governor’s proposed tax increases.

“Minnesotans have been struggling,” House Speaker Kurt Daudt said Friday. “Democrats want to double down on taking more money out of the pockets of Minnesota families? It just doesn’t make any logical sense.”

House Republicans did not have an immediate reaction to the list, released late Monday, as they were still analyzing it.

If lawmakers approved a scaled-down version of Dayton’s plan, MnDOT officials said they’d adjust the project list to account for available resources.

“I would say largely a lot of these projects would just not show up” with less funding, Nelson said. He said MnDOT does not have any ranking or prioritization within the list yet so if there is less money, they are not yet sure which project would disappear.

Last month, Gov. Mark Dayton underscored his push for $6 billion in new state transportation funding by trotting out road and bridge improvements he promised would get done with the new money.

“If we fail to act, the condition of these roads and bridges will only get worse,” Dayton said.

Dayton and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith have traveled the state to highlight local roads they say will get funded with the cash. Later this week, Dayton and Senate DFLers will unite in their push for transportation cash.

PRICETAGS VARY

MnDOT’s estimates have considerable variation, especially for bridges. MnDOT officials provided a lower and upper range for each project, rather than a single number. Many projects saw 20 to 50 percent differences. Some of the bridge projects as listed as costing as little as $40,000 each to as much as $2.4 million — 60 times higher.

If every project came in at the bottom of its projection, the total cost would be $4.2 billion over 10 years. If every project hit its upper limit, they’d cost $7.9 billion. The target is around $6 billion, the amount Dayton’s tax package is expected to raise over the next decade.

MnDOT officials said the uncertainty is because many of the projects have yet to receive the detailed analysis they would get before they’re started.

Among the unknowns: engineers have yet to fully assess the bridges to discover how much work they need, it is unclear when each project would be started during the ten-year timeline and material costs can shift.

“It’s a constantly moving picture to try to get that set of projects right,” said Brian Isaacson, director of program management for MnDOT’s metropolitan district. “What you have in front of you is the building blocks of projects.”