The early going for two giant surface transportation bills in Congress is about as bumpy as the crumbling roads they’re supposed to repair.

The House is gearing up to start floor debate Wednesday on Republicans’ five-year $260 billion highways and infrastructure bill. But near-unanimous opposition from Democrats and significant revolts from within their own ranks have also forced GOP leaders to resort to some deft legislative tactics to help the bill along to passage.

Complaints from Democrats and their allies in the transit and environmental communities is not surprising. But GOP leaders have faced days of withering criticism a motley group of Republicans, including  suburban and big-city backbenchers as well as conservatives, Tea Party lawmakers, and others upset by the overall cost.

One of the most adamant critics is U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, himself a former GOP congressman, who Tuesday said the bill “would take us back to the horse and buggy age.”  He’s also called it “lousy,” “the worst bill in decades,” and “the most partisan ever.”

The mounting opposition threw the fate of the giant bill–its road projects, funding reforms, oil drilling provisions, even the Keystone XL Pipeline–into serious doubt. Republican leaders officially decided Tuesday to resort to some legislative gymnastics to help out the situation.

They’ve decided to break the bill up into three main sections on the floor this week: transportation projects and funding, energy, and federal employee pensions. The point? The strategy allows Republicans unwilling to vote for the behemoth bill as a whole to instead vote bit by bit on a menu of bills. The idea here is that while lawmakers may jump on or off of individual parts,  each could pass with varying coalitions of members.

The fun doesn’t end there. Each section is attracting heaps of amendments, the count hovering around 300 at the time of this filing. Amendments run the gamut, from restoring reduced transit funding to killing or slowing down the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. There are amendments on HOT lanes, and HOV lanes, pedestrian projects known as “enhancements,”  and efforts to cut or boost the bill’s overall funding level.

House leaders plan to use a procedure enabling each of the parts, when passed, to coalesce automatically into one big package for transport to the Senate.

There it will encounter emotions ranging from indifference to repulsion.

The Senate is set to move back onto consideration of its two-year, $109 billion highway bill some time tomorrow evening. But that only opens the door for ongoing disagreement over amendments, some of which are relevant to transportation and some of which are not. A GOP effort to force construction of the Keystone XL pipeline is expected, but so are amendments on the recent controversy over the Obama Administration’s contraceptive insurance policy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is pledging to hold up the bill pending a vote on his bid to cut off funding to Egypt as punishment for alleged intimidation of American non-profit workers. The tangential transportation connection here is that one of the NGO workers in question, Sam LaHood, is the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

All of this is happening while Republican and Democratic negotiators move to strike a deal on extending expiring payroll tax cuts, unemployment benefits and Medicare payments for doctors. Any such deal is bound to get privileged House and Senate floor time once a deal is struck and quick passage becomes a priority, aides said.

Given procedural hurdles, it looks increasingly unlikely that the bill can pass the Senate this week. Congress is on recess for the President’s Day week. So that means no resolution until late February, at the earliest.

Follow Todd Zwillich on Twitter @toddzwillich