Colorado motorists who have had to ante up higher fees this year to register their vehicles will soon see where the first year’s revenue for bridge repair will be going.

The Colorado Transportation Commission has selected 17 candidate bridges from its list of 128 structurally deficient bridges to allocate the first year’s revenue from the FASTER bill’s increased auto registration fees. The estimated cost of all 17 is $63.6 million, while FASTER is projected to bring in $50.6 million. How many get worked on depends on final costs and revenue figures.

See a slide show of the 17 bridges, from CDOT’s photo files:

To expand to full screen and read the captions, first click on the “play” button and then click on the box that will appear at the lower right corner — with the four little arrows pointing outward. When the full screen appears, click on “Show Info” at the menu bar on the top right.

The bridges are scattered throughout 11 of the state’s 64 counties. Ten of them were built in the 1930s or earlier. The oldest on the list is the U.S. 550 bridge over Bear Creek Falls near Ouray, built in 1922. Many of the older ones were built with timber supports. Four bridges are ancient wooden structures along the CO 96 corridor in the Arkansas Valley, where in the April 2008 wildfires two volunteer firefighters were killed when they drove into a ravine where another timber bridge had been burned out but was obscured by the thick smoke.

A vote on the plan will come at Thursday’s formal commission meeting.

“They still haven’t discussed exactly if they are going to move ahead and fund these by traditional pay as you go contracting or look at something more innovative yet,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.

The oldest bridge on the FASTER list for replacement is the 87-year-old cliff-hugging Million Dollar Highway bridge over Bear Creek Falls near Ouray.

Fifteen of the bridges are outside the Denver metro area, which has 40 percent of the structurally deficient bridges. But some of them already are under repair from CDOT’s regular budget allocations and stimulus funds. A few – particularly the 1.2-mile Interstate 70 viaduct through Denver’s Swansea and Elyria neighborhoods – cost so much that they outstrip FASTER’s ability to produce revenue. Replacing that 45-year old viaduct would cost $800 million today and more each year it is delayed.

The commission, which is the governing body of the Colorado Department of Transportation, apportioned the fiscal year 2010 funds during a workshop this afternoon. The work won’t actually start until early next year, as the funds come in and design work can go out to bid.

The apportionments total $63,647,000.

While only two bridge projects are in the Denver metro area, both of them in Adams County, those two consume more than half the total due to their size.

They are the replacement of the Interstate 76 eastbound bridge over the South Platte River, for $19.4 million, and the replacement of the 84th Avenue bridge over Interstate 25 in Thornton, an original Valley Highway extension bridge built in 1959, for $19 million.

View FASTER Bridges in a larger map

Click on the map controls at upper left to zoom in and out, click on a blue balloon to see a description of the bridge project at that location.

CDOT will replace the westbound I-76 span over the river in the same project, but because that bridge isn’t rated structurally deficient, the state will not use FASTER funds on that portion, instead using regular CDOT budget allocations.

Arguably the most dramatic bridge project on the list is the $2,922,000 replacement of the Bear Creek bridge on U.S. 550, the Million Dollar Highway, on the climb south of Ouray. The often-photographed bridge is on a shelf road carved into the mountainside and a tight curve where the creek cascades down the rocks and spills under the structure.

The list includes four aging bridges on a 27-mile segment of CO 96 in Crowley and Kiowa County, between Sugar City and Haswell on the eastern plains. They are timber-supported structures that carry CO 96 over draws, which are normally dry stream beds. The total cost of the four is $5.25 million.

The allocation also includes two I-25 bridges in Pueblo, south of the Arkansas River, over Ilex Street, but they weill be rehabilitated instead of replaced.

The list of bridges to be replaced in 2010 and the estimated cost to replace or repair them:

• I-70 Frontage Road over Clear Creek, west of Idaho Springs, Clear Creek County, built 1958, concrete tee beam: $3,095,000

• CO 9 over Buckskin Gulch, Alma, Park County, built 1938, concrete: $280,000

• CO 69 over Turkey Creek, Huerfano County, built in 1939, steel: $3,000,000

• CO 96 over Black Draw, near Sugar City, Crowley County, built 1932, timber: $750,000

• CO 96 over Draw, Kiowa County, built in 1948, timber: $1,500,000

• CO 96 over Draw, Kiowa County, built in 1948, timber: $1,500,000

• CO 96 over Draw, Kiowa County, built in 1936, timber: $1,500,000

• Interstate 25 southbound over Ilex, Bennet streets and railroad, Pueblo, built in 1959, prestressed concrete: $1,000,000

• Interstate 25 northbound over Ilex, Bennet streets and railroad, Pueblo, built in 1959, prestressed concrete: $1,000,000

• U.S. 24 eastbound over Fountain Creek, El Paso County, built in 1931, steel: $1,200,000

• U.S. 24 over Twin Creek, Florissant, Teller County, built in 1937, steel: $1,200,000

• CO 67 over Draw, Woodland Park, Teller County, built in 1939, timber: $800,000

• U.S. 24 over Union Pacific Railroad, north of Leadville, Lake County, built in 1939, steel: $4,300,000

• U.S. 138 over Ditch, Logan County, built in 1930, timber: $1,200,000

• U.S. 550 over Bear Creek, Ouray County, built in 1922, concrete: $2,922,000

• Interstate 76 over South Platte River, Adams County, built in 1967, concrete: $19,400,000

• 84th Avenue over Interstate 25, Thornton, built in 1959, concrete: $19,000,000