BELLE FOURCHE - The Capital for a Day in Belle Fourche on Wednesday brought an announcement of state highway construction delays that are just the tip of the iceberg for the Black Hills.

South Dakota Department of Transportation Regional Engineer Todd Seaman said Thursday that his staff is working to update the next five-year plan, which includes construction schedule setbacks throughout the area.

Wednesday's Capital for a Day pushed timing for the Belle Fourche announcement ahead, Seaman said. The mile-long $6.4 million U.S. Highway 85 project through the center of Belle Fourche is pushed back again from 2009 to 2010.

And that's just part of a proposal that should be ready for the region about the first of June, Seaman said.

"Belle Fourche is still an important project for us," he said. "A lot of jobs have gone completely out of our five-year program."

Seaman said the planning is all tentative until the transportation commission approves his staff's plans in August.

When the initial plan is done, he said, he goes to all the communities that will have changes - and that includes Rapid City projects in the five-year program.

The bottom line is the bottom line, he said.

"It's simply money."

The federal government took money from the state for rebuilding projects on the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina, he said, "and with fuel prices high, our revenues are flat."

There will be a regional meeting in July to outline the plan as a whole to local officials.

The plan goes to the commission in August for final approval.

"There's only so much money, and nothing's final until the commission approves it," Seaman said.

He said it's hard to predict income for the department.

After the revenue predictions are made, Seaman said, "We go through our priorities to see how far that's going to go."

Local comments on their projects, plus response at the July meeting may bring some "massaging" of the five-year plan that will be presented at August's commission meeting.

"We would like the public to understand that revenues are flat, construction costs are up and we've had to make some hard decisions," Seaman said.

Projects such as the one through Belle Fourche, in Rapid City and Sturgis, are more expensive than rural roads, Seaman said.

"We're willing to pay more to get them done quicker," he said.

Businesses along the route affected by traffic disruptions need to have construction completed as fast as possible. "These are time-critical projects."

Seaman said last year saw a 30 percent increase in construction costs without an equivalent increase in fuel-tax revenues.