BANGOR – Planning for needed road projects has become an exercise in frustration for officials in Greater Bangor.

This month found communities across the state grappling with the deferral of $130 million in state transportation projects planned for the next two years.

The Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation System, or BACTS, is bracing for a more than $2 million hit, Director Rob Kenerson said this week.

“This is very unique that we have this level of instability [with regard to federal and state funding],” Kenerson said.

“Usually we have a pretty good handle on what money we’re going to have,” he said.

Kenerson said BACTS actually was told in October that it was going to get $6,960,000 for the next two-year period.

A month later, the figure had dropped to $4,567,640, he said, forcing the BACTS committee that reviews and prioritizes transportation projects in the region to scrap or scale back more than a dozen improvement projects planned for the next few years.

BACTS is one of four metropolitan planning organizations in Maine designated by the federal and state governments to carry out transportation planning. BACTS covers the Greater Bangor urban area, which comprises Bangor, Brewer, Veazie, parts of Hampden, Orono, Old Town, Milford, Bradley, Eddington, Orrington and Indian Island.

“It’s tough because we’re facing a shortfall, and yet we know the state is doing the best it can with the money it has,” Kenerson said.

“To be honest. I was hoping for a larger [transportation] bond package,” he said. Last year, there wasn’t one, and this year’s roughly $30 million package was significantly less than those of past years.

“But that’s the economy in the state of Maine,” he said.

“The bottom line is I think this puts more and more pressure on local communities,” Kenerson said.

Transportation Commissioner David Cole recently told lawmakers that several unexpected developments had converged, prompting the decision to defer $130 million in highway projects in about 100 Maine communities.

Reasons for that decision include: changes in the new federal transportation law that provides more money overall over the next five years, but later in the funding cycle than state officials anticipated; higher fuel costs; and a spike in costs for construction materials such as asphalt and steel because of the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the hurricane season.

Noting that the funding cuts would affect needed road projects in about 100 Maine communities, Gov. John Baldacci has appointed a working group to see if some of the projects can be restored. The group is slated to begin its work Thursday, according to a weekly schedule released Friday by the governor’s office.

Ten of the 13 projects on the hit list were proposed for Bangor.

The Bangor projects that could be cut or scaled back cover many parts of the city, including the increasingly congested section of Stillwater Avenue near the Bangor Mall and the new Bangor Parkade shopping center.

Bangor City Manager Edward Barrett is among the officials waiting to see what the state’s response to the problem will be.

“Obviously, we haven’t made any decisions [about what the city will do about the DOT funding cuts],” Barrett said.

“Obviously, we’re concerned,” he said, adding that he hoped the city would not see a repeat of the funding cuts in the early 1990s that forced many needed city road projects to fall by the wayside.

“We certainly need the state and federal assistance,” he said, noting that if the city has to use local dollars on projects eligible for state and federal funding, the work will come at the expense of streets that are solely the city’s responsibility to maintain.

“We can’t afford to redirect that money,” he said. Some of the city’s street “are in pretty bad shape” as it stands.

Three more affected projects are in nearby Brewer and Orono.

Joshua Saucier, Brewer assistant engineer, said no decisions had been made on the two affected projects there, one slated for elimination and the other to be scaled back.

“I think everybody got caught off guard,” Saucier said. “We’re still evaluating the situation.”

David Struck, Orono’s assistant town manager, said Friday that while it has been scaled back, the Bennoch Road project remains viable.

“It’s not off the drawing board. It’s still an active project,” Struck said. Instead, he said, the project has been re-engineered to shave about $300,000 off the cost.

“From the town’s point of view, we were hoping there will be some more money. That’s kind of in my dreams now,” he said.

Possible changes to BACTS road projects

Bangor

Projects that could be eliminated:

. Burleigh Road, highway improvements, beginning at Broadway and extending 0.3 mile to Balsam Drive.

. Griffin Road, highway resurfacing, beginning at Union Street and extending 0.24 mile to Main Avenue.

. Hogan Road, modification of traffic signals, intersection of Hogan Road and Interstate 95 southbound ramp, or Exit 49.

. Mount Hope Avenue, highway improvements, beginning at Hempstead Street and extending 0.31 mile east to Hogan Road.

. Stillwater Avenue corridor, coordination of traffic signals, from north entrance of Bangor Mall to Hogan Road.

Projects that could be reduced in scope:

. Main Street, highway resurfacing, beginning at Union Street and extending 0.23 mile to Hammond Street.

. Ohio Street, highway improvements, beginning at Bailey Street and extending 0.8 mile to Sunbury Village.

. Ohio Street, highway resurfacing, beginning at Griffin Road and extending 1.08 mile to Blue Hill.

. Stillwater Avenue, highway improvements, beginning at Longview Drive and extending north 1.42 miles to Veazie town line.

. Stillwater Avenue, preliminary engineering and traffic signal and ending at Hogan Road.

Affected projects elsewhere in the BACTS area are:

Brewer

. Parkway South, highway resurfacing, beginning at Wilson Street and extending 0.39 mile to the Interstate 395 overpass.

. Wilson Street, highway reconstruction, beginning at Green Point Road and extending 0.45 mile to Wal-Mart. The scope of this project has been reduced.

Also slated to be reduced in scope is the following project:

Orono

. Bennoch Road, highway reconstruction, beginning 0.3 mile south of Godfrey Drive and extending 0.63 mile south to Noyes Drive.