South-central Minnesota would be hit harder than any other part of the state under a tentative plan to shift money from planned highway construction projects to the Interstate 35W bridge replacement.

A total of $8.4 million in planned projects in Blue Earth, Faribault, Watonwan, Waseca and Le Sueur counties would be postponed under the tentative plan to cover a $140 million shortfall in funding needed to replace the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

Deferred projects in other Minnesota Department of Transportation districts in outstate Minnesota total as little as $2.7 million in northwestern Minnesota and $3.1 million in the west-central part of the state.

No MnDOT district other than the Mankato-based District 7 has deferred projects of more than $5.8 million under the plan released to lawmakers by Transportation Commissioner and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau.

The delay of one area project — the $4.8 million for right-of-way acquisition for the expansion of Highway 14 between Waseca and Owatonna — surpasses the total list of proposed project delays in three other MnDOT districts.

Reaction to the plan by area transportation advocates ranged from exasperated to angry.

“It becomes very clear that either the governor or the lieutenant governor care very little about the deaths on Highway 14,” said North Mankato Mayor Gary Zellmer, a member of the Area Transportation Partnership.

The partnership helps determine the priority list for transportation spending in the district and has focused virtually all of the available funding on the Highway 14 expansion in coming years. If the right-of-way acquisition is delayed by the proposed shift of funding to the bridge project, the expansion project will be on hold — along with all of the other regional projects that could have been done if the district hadn’t committed to focusing $65 million on Highway 14, Zellmer said.

“This is the second time they’ve pulled this money,” Zellmer said, saying the state previously delayed providing part of its share of the Highway 14 project to cover a shortfall in funding for the Crosstown Highway/I-35 commons project in south Minneapolis.

“It’s going to be the bridge and it’s going to be the Crosstown/35W and that’s going to be about it,” Zellmer said of the state’s upcoming construction schedule. “Everything else is going to stop.”

Molnau and other officials in the administration of Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the Legislature has an option for funding the bridge project without delaying other projects scheduled around the state. A little-known panel of eight senior lawmakers — the Transportation Contingent Appropriations Group — is being asked to authorize $195 million in general state revenue for the bridge project with the expectation that federal bridge funding will eventually be available to replace those funds.

Without the special authorization — which the panel has been reluctant to give because large appropriations are typically approved by the entire Legislature — the bridge funds will need to be raided from projects around the state, the Pawlenty administration contends.

State Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, said the funding crunch is simply more evidence the state isn’t investing enough in transportation.

“Year after year after year we hear reasons we have to delay projects,” Sheran said. “... All of this exposes how stressed the Minnesota Department of Transportation is.”

Not only are the highway improvements needed to support ever-growing freight loads in southern Minnesota and to deal with safety concerns, the projects also provide good-paying jobs for area residents in the construction industry, she said. The proposed shift in road funding from outstate projects to a metro bridge reconstruction would have a major economic impact.

“Those jobs that create a stronger middle class are all up in the metro area,” Sheran said.

Larry Nurre, president of the Mankato-based Southern Minnesota Construction, said he believes most firms in the state have had adequate workloads in the past two years.

“But looking ahead ...,” Nurre said.

A delay in purchasing right-of-way for Highway 14 would likely mean a year’s delay in one of the biggest construction projects in the region’s history.

“We were looking forward to at least bidding on that project,” Nurre said.

There is one positive to the ongoing debate in St. Paul about how best to bridge the funding gap for the I-35 bridge project, he said. People are recognizing that the state is so short of transportation funding that cash flow is a recurring problem for MnDOT.

“This should not be a big surprise to MnDOT. This should not be a big surprise to the legislative committees,” he said. “This has been in front of them for three years now.”