Mineta said he worries the amendment will prevent a bill from being passed before the current extension of TEA-21 expires in late May. Once the Senate passes its own version of the bill, House and Senate members will then form a conference committee to hash out a compromise version of the reauthorization bill.

In January, Utah Department of Transportation executive director John Njord and three other state directors held a Washington press conference at which they said Congress was being stingy and unfair with federal highway money. They said states are losing big revenue and thousands of jobs because reauthorization has been delayed.

"We're currently exploring steps we can take to ensure, in the short term, projects already scheduled can go forward if a delay happens," UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said Wednesday." Of course, there would definitely be impacts here in Utah if there was a long-term delay."

Here are some of the Utah projects Mineta identified as most in need of funding and susceptible to delay, in part because they are already under way:

• The I-15 corridor environmental impact statement, Utah County to Salt Lake County — a $10 million study to examine possible reconstruction of about 65 miles of I-15. The study is under way and slated for a summer 2007 completion.

• U.S. 189, Provo Canyon Highway — a $54 million project, which began in December 2004, will widen the road to four lanes from U-92 (the Sundance turn-off) to a half mile east of Deer Creek Dam. New bridges will be constructed across the spillway at the base of Deer Creek Dam and across the Heber Valley Railroad tracks. Portions of the road will be realigned.

• I-15 from Paragonah to U-20 — an $11 million project, which began in June 2004, to reconstruct the freeway in southern Utah. The project is about halfway completed.

• U.S. 89, Wall Avenue to 2700 North in Harrisville and Pleasant View — a $7 million project, which began in March, to reconstruct the road and add wider travel lanes, a center turn median and shoulders. The project is only 5 percent complete.

For more information, click on www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization.

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Contributing: Jerry Spangler

E-mail: zman@desnews.com