PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island transportation officials are afraid that an $87-million bond issue, which they say is critical to continuing the state’s highway program for the next two years, will be defeated — in a political battle in Massachusetts.

The money borrowed through the transportation bond issue on the ballot next month would go mostly to state Department of Transportation road and bridge construction and repair projects.

The borrowed money has considerable leverage, with each dollar giving the state access to about four dollars — a total of $436 million — from the Federal Highway Administration during the next two years.

The transportation bond issue is Question 1 on the ballot. DOT Director Michael P. Lewis says that passing it is important because the state highway program is so heavily dependent on federal aid.

In fact, he told a state planning meeting last week, “There is no state-funded transportation program in Rhode Island.” In other words, no bond issue means no matching money, no federal highway aid, and no money to build and repair roads and bridges.

The DOT and the state construction industry say Question 1’s defeat would mean leaving two years’ federal highway aid on the table for some other state to spend, along with letting the state’s highways and bridges, already in bad shape, deteriorate further.

Henry Sherlock, executive director of the Construction Industries of Rhode Island, an industry group, said there are powerful reasons to support the Rhode Island bond issue, particularly at a time of national economic turmoil, because the construction program creates thousands of jobs. The industry says that for each person actually working on a construction project, as many as 35 jobs could be affected, directly or indirectly, from engineering consultants working for the DOT to retail jobs partly supported by spending that originates in the construction program.

Unfortunately, there’s another Question 1 this year, in Massachusetts.

That question, a proposal to eliminate the Massachusetts state income tax by the end of 2009, has nothing to do with Rhode Island’s roads and bridges. But a similar repeal effort nearly passed, with 45 per cent of the vote, in Massachusetts in 2002, and a powerful, well-financed coalition of labor and other groups is fighting this attempt, urging a “no” vote on that Question 1.

Lewis says that the way the Massachusetts anti-Question 1 campaign is making its case isn’t helping his bond issue. A TV advertisement from the opposition group Coalition for Our Communities castigates Question 1 but doesn’t mention that it’s talking about Massachusetts. The ad could leave a Rhode Island viewer with the impression that Question 1 is a bad idea because it would cripple state government and raise local property taxes.

However, Stephen Crawford, a spokesman for Coalition for our Communities, said he plans to help by changing the advertising.

“We will edit as necessary to clarify it for voters in both states,” Crawford said.

“I’ve never encountered this kind of confusion,” he remarked.

On the other hand, there’s also a contrary theory: the Massachusetts struggle might help the Rhode Island bond issue. If voters here think that Question 1 would cut their taxes, the theory goes, they might like the idea — and vote for Question 1.

Although it’s described as an $87-million bond issue, the actual cost to the taxpayers would be much more when the associated costs are counted. The total cost would be $152 million, according to the secretary of state’s Voter Information Handbook, including $64.7 million in interest, assuming that the bonds were paid off over 20 years at a 6-percent interest rate.

The most prominent project the bond money and related federal aid would go to is the rusted Pawtucket River Bridge on Route 95, now posted with a weight limit that bans large trucks.

Kazem Farhoumand, the DOT’s chief engineer, said the some of the money would be spent on minimal repairs “to keep it stable until we can replace it,” and also contribute to the $90-million to $100-million cost of a new bridge.

Farhoumand said that among a number of other projects, the bond and federal aid money would go to replacing these bridges:

•Conant Street Bridge, Pawtucket

•Round Top Bridge, Burrillville

•McCormick Quarry Bridge, East Providence

•Dillon’s Corner Bridge, Narragansett

•Union Avenue Bridge, Providence

It would also pay to rehabilitate several other bridges, resurface a number of roads across the state, seal cracked pavement and make a variety of other repairs, he said.

Lewis, meanwhile, said that part of his problem is that the Rhode Island public doesn’t understand transportation construction finance. He said he’s fielding skeptical questions about the bond issue, along the lines of, “I gave you $80 million two years ago. Why do you need more now?” Meanwhile, the DOT is spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year and says it’s falling behind on repairing bridges and highways.

blandis@projo.com