Income from a special 4-cent state gasoline tax is not keeping up with soaring construction costs, meaning two New Orleans area transportation projects are in jeopardy.

William Ankner, secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development, told a joint meeting of the House-Senate Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works yesterday that money is unavailable to build a 5-mile-long Florida Avenue Bridge, now projected to cost $474 million and to build a stretch of Interstate 12 to Bush in Saint Tammany Parish, projected to cost about $149 million.

The two projects are the last of 17 to be financed in the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development, a 20-year-old program financed by 4 pennies of the 20-cent state gasoline tax that generates about $120 million a year.

The other 16 cents goes to operate the agency and build other road projects.

Ankner says the projects already underway will be financed.

Ankner says storm delays and the spiraling costs of construction and supplies have hit the program.

For example, he said, in 2002 the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish was projected to cost $312 million; the 2008 estimates place it at 1.2 billion dollars.

Gasoline tax revenue, based on volume but not price, also has declined by 7 percent in recent months because of the growing costs of fuel.