TRENTON, N.J. The New Jersey Department of Transportation has issued a report saying it will cost nearly $13.6 billion to repair aging and structurally weakened bridges across the state over the next 10 years.

At the same time, the department has concluded the big repair bill could be financed partly by significantly increasing road tolls.

The report issued by the department earlier this month said the state needs $800 million a year - or $291 million more than it currently receives - for upgrades and maintenance of bridges.

In announcing the report finding, Gov. Jon S. Corzine provided no firm answers about how the upkeep would be financed. But he suggested higher taxes and tolls were a possibility.

"I don't like paying taxes," Corzine said. "I don't like paying tolls. No one does. I also don't like bridges collapsing."

The report found that 2,197 bridges, more than a third of all bridges in the state, are deficient in some way under federal guidelines, meaning they are compromised structurally or have obsolete features like narrow lanes.

But being deficient does not mean unsafe, Corzine and Kris Kolluri, the Department of Transportation commissioner, insisted.

Only one bridge under the state's regulatory authority, in Salem County, is closed, but that decision was made before the August bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed 13 people.

That event focused attention on bridge safety across the country, and prompted Corzine to commission a statewide safety review.

While the governor declined to say how the $13.58 billion in repairs would be paid for, Kolluri concluded that a 45 percent toll increase would be one option. But in a letter to the governor, he said a toll increase would cover only bridges on the New Jersey Turnpike, leaving it unclear how the repair of the states other bridges would be financed.

Officials insist that such an increase is hypothetical. Additionally, Corzine said that an increase in the states gas tax, which has been proposed in the past, would "not be optimal."

According to the report, the Pulaski Skyway is the bridge most urgently in need of repair in New Jersey. The skyway is a series of cantilever truss bridges in the northeast part of the state.

The highway carries four lanes of U.S. Route 1/9 for 3.5 miles between the far east side of Newark and Tonnelle Circle in Jersey City, passing over Kearny.

It is known as a skyway because it travels high above the land and rivers it crosses; it bridges the Passaic and Hackensack rivers at a height of 135 feet. It also crosses over the New Jersey Turnpike, many local roads, and several rail lines.

The 75-year-old skyway is named for Gen. Kazimierz Pulaski, the Polish military leader who assisted in training and commanding Continental Army troops in the American Revolutionary War.

Transportation officials and Corzine have not yet decided whether to replace the bridge, or to keep making repairs to it. The state is spending $10 million a year to maintain the three-mile-long structure. State officials have estimated it would cost at least $1 billion to replace the bridge, but they are not certain replacement is an option.