PHOENIX — State transportation officials are already lining up $869 million worth of road projects — including $30.9 million in Coconino County — they hope to get the federal government to finance through a proposed stimulus package.

The list, ranging from major highway construction to sign replacements, represent contracts the state actually could award within six months, according to Tim Tait, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Transportation. And that, he said, makes them likely candidates for the kind of projects the Obama administration wants to jump-start the economy through new spending and new jobs.

ADOT also has come up with a separate list of 65 projects at 20 airports worth $356 million which could be ready to bid in 180 days and could fit the criteria for a stimulus package.

But Tait said the list does not necessarily represent the projects the state Transportation Board considers the most important. In fact, some of them are not even on the board's five-year plan.

"The emphasis here was looking at projects that are ready and that we can move on quickly," he said.

Tait said, though, this is not just a "wish list" which includes things that really aren't needed solely because the state thinks the federal government will be handing out cash.

"I think the argument can be made that all these projects are needed," he said.

"The needs in Arizona far outpace the available funding," Tait said, with the state's rapid growth occurring even as gasoline tax collections are declining. And a proposal to ask voters to hike the state sales tax by a penny to generate $42.6 billion over the next 30 years to help catch up failed to qualify for the ballot.

"This is an opportunity for us to move forward with those projects that we have had ready or we can make ready very quickly," he said.

Tait said what the federal government finally funds from that list — assuming Congress approves a stimulus package — will depend on the criteria in the legislation. For example, he said, ADOT is only guessing that what the government will want are projects that actually can get started within six months.

"We tried to find something reasonable and identify the projects that fit that criteria," he said.

Tait said ADOT cannot tell at this point whether any stimulus package will require states to come up with some matching cash.

Nearly half of the $356 million total for airports would be for part of the "people mover" project at Sky Harbor International Airport designed to link the terminals to the light rail line on Washington Street.

Most of the other big-ticket items also are for Sky Harbor, though there also is about $28 million in projects at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport as well as $10 million for apron construction at Tucson International Airport. Projects at Sedona's airport total $5.5 million.

Coconino County:

Reconstruct I-40 around Walnut Canyon — $12 million

Repave US 89 from Townsend to Fernwood roads — $8 million

Repave US 89 from The Gap to Cedar Ridge Trading Post — $6.5 million

Repave I-17 Coconino Munds Park — Yavapai Co Ln (SB) — $2.2 million

I-40 Coconino MP 247 — MP 298 Sign Replacement $1.2 million

Repave I-40 Coconino MP 177 — MP 182 — $1 million