INDIANAPOLIS - Gov. Mitch Daniels on Friday announced a second wave of highway projects to be funded with federal stimulus money.

Indiana's share of the stimulus package includes $658 million for building and maintaining the state's roads. Some of that money goes to local governments, but the majority - $440 million - goes to the state. Daniels and the Indiana Department of Transportation plan to spend the money in 10 rounds.

Friday's list included 29 projects in 21 counties and carries a $43.6 million price tag. Earlier this month, INDOT announced 26 projects valued at $39 million. Those projects are planned and ready to begin now, and the state will take bids from construction companies starting March 25, the governor said.

By jump-starting road projects, Indiana is "trying to play our part, we hope, in bringing economic life back to the country," Daniels said Friday.

Three of the projects announced thus far are in Southwestern Indiana. Friday's list included improvements to State Road 164 in Dubois County. The first list unveiled three weeks ago included maintenance on State Road 58 in Knox and Daviess counties and State Road 61 in Warrick County.

Daniels said the state's objective is to spend the money quickly to create jobs, but anyone who claims to know just how many jobs these projects will create is "kidding themselves - and you," he told reporters at a Statehouse news conference.

"We will do our best, but no one is ever going to know how many jobs to attribute to this or any piece of this bill," he said. "You just have to hope that in the aggregate, it has a positive effect."

The requirements Congress attached to accepting the federal stimulus dollars mean they are intended for projects that can be started soon, not interstate projects that require years of planning, engineering and land acquisition.

Departing INDOT Commissioner Karl Browning reiterated Friday that the ongoing construction project to extend Interstate 69 from Evansville to Indianapolis does not qualify for the federal stimulus.

Browning said the state already has the money it needs for the I-69 South construction project just by spending proceeds from the $3.8 billion Major Moves lease of the northern Indiana toll road. Construction on the first segment of I-69 in Gibson County started in July using Major Moves dollars.

Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, gives Daniels credit for acting quickly to accept the federal stimulus and spend it, when some Republican governors in other states have said they would decline stimulus dollars.

Hume said Daniels is doing what he can to at least slow the "horrible, downward spiral we're in. ... To sit back and do nothing is a recipe for disaster," Hume, D-Princeton, said. "If our governor was like some of the other Republican governors who are saying they're not going to take the money, that would do nothing but hurt Hoosiers. Instead, he's taken the initiative to move forward."

Indiana is getting about $4 billion from the $787 billion plan President Barack Obama signed into law. Of that, $658 million will go to roadway construction projects. INDOT gets $440 million, while local governments receive $198 million. An additional $20 million is directed for projects such as sidewalks, trails and stoplights, according to state officials.

Daniels and INDOT will detail more stimulus-funded road construction and maintenance projects later this year.

Meanwhile, Evansville has its own stimulus wish list. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams has said he will ask for $8 million to build a third 256-bed pod at the county jail off Harlan Avenue.

The city also will receive nearly $4 million for housing. Evansville will use $2 million to revitalize some of the city's oldest neighborhoods, and $1.8 million will go to the Evansville Housing Authority.