BILOXI (AP) — Soaring fuel prices have sidelined road construction as Mississippi Department of Transportation officials pump additional money into existing projects.

Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown says increasing road construction material prices and fuel cost adjustments have climbed steeply.

“Unless something changes, the building of new roads is coming to a fast halt,” Brown said. “What the money will do is go to maintain what we have. … It’s going to cost us almost as much to maintain what we have as what money we receive.”

A four-lane expansion of Mississippi 603 has been put on hold along with two other major south Mississippi projects.

Asphalt prices have doubled in the last decade. And the cost of items that must be trucked, including concrete and steel, has risen as diesel fuel prices soar past $4.50 a gallon. Fuel prices have also driven up the cost of dirt work.

“Roadwork is very, very sensitive to the price of oil,” Brown said. “We’re being murdered here.”

While Hancock County supervisors, U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., and Gov. Haley Barbour’s office are working on funding for the Mississippi 603 project, Brown said transportation officials have also suspended improvements to U.S. 11 and Mississippi 43 in Picayune.

Plans to widen Mississippi 26 near Wiggins, which has seen significant growth since Hurricane Katrina, also have been delayed.

Other projects already funded are moving ahead. Mississippi 57 in Jackson County and a bypass around Vancleave are set to go because $40 million was set aside. There’s also money for the first phase of a connection between downtown Gulfport and Interstate 10.

The Legislature has given the Transportation Department authority to build toll roads in some places. Brown said that could help along with the department’s ability to raise some money through local government bonds.

In the decade he’s been commissioner, Brown said the department’s budget has remained steady at about $900 million a year, but costs have gone up about 60 percent.

“There are tough choices coming,” Brown said. “It’s having congestion or additional funding. It’s just that simple.”