DUBLIN -- Southwest Virginia residents and officials pleaded with state transportation planners Monday to spare their road and bridge construction projects, even as Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer said the state's cuts to transportation would have to be deeper than previously anticipated.

Last month, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced it would have to cut $1.3 billion from the state's transportation projects in the wake of sharply declining federal and state revenues. After absorbing Gov. Tim Kaine's budget proposal, however, Homer said VDOT would have to find an additional $400 million to slash from road, rail and transit programs.

"We face a very, very dire situation at the state level, and at the federal level it's exactly the same," he told an audience of roughly 100 people during a public hearing of the Commonwealth Transportation Board at New River Community College in Dublin.

The proposed cuts mean that long-delayed projects in the Roanoke and New River valleys will have to be deferred again. Chief among those are replacing the Interstate 81 bridge over the New River between Montgomery and Pulaski counties, completing the interchange at Valley View Boulevard and Interstate 581 in Roanoke, improving the Elm Avenue and I-581 interchange in Roanoke and improving Exit 150 on I-81 in Botetourt County.

All told, VDOT's Salem District, which includes the Roanoke and New River valleys, would lose more than $216 million. Most of those cuts would come from interstate highway projects.

Bob Bengtson, Roanoke's director of public works, told state officials that the city already has committed money to the I-581 projects, and urged that they not be abandoned. Completing the highway interchange at Valley View Boulevard would make it possible to develop 100 acres of land, which would provide a significant economic boost to the city, he added.

"We now look to our partners in VDOT to significantly invest in Roanoke," he said.

Wayne Strickland, executive director of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission, told the state officials that the Salem District would lose more than other districts from the agency's proposed cuts. The district would see its budget slashed roughly 48 percent compared with the state's last adopted transportation plan, he said. By contrast, Lynchburg and Northern Virginia would absorb a relatively smaller hit of about 13 percent.

Brandon Steele, Blacksburg's urban transportation manager, said he had told a resident months ago that the town intended to buy her property for a transportation project. Now that spending has been put on hold, he said he had to tell her he could not complete the purchase of her property after all, leaving her with few options to sell.

"And I feel like I've lied to her," he said.

The proposed reductions follow an earlier round this summer of $1.1 billion in cuts to the state's transportation plan, which outlines projects over the next six years. The six-year plan is revised every year, usually in June. This is the first time the Commonwealth Transportation Board is considering midyear reductions to the plan, driven by the worsening financial crisis.

Homer said he was particularly concerned about the condition of the state's bridges, many of which were built soon after World War II and are in need of replacement. Already, the state has had to close two bridges in the Hampton Roads area because of disrepair, he said. Others likely will follow, he said.

"We face the difficult choice of which bridge to repair," he said.

Meanwhile, VDOT plans to eliminate approximately 1,000 jobs in the next year, shrinking its work force to about 7,500 employees. That could lead to office consolidations and less mowing and maintenance of highway facilities, Homer said.

He also warned the audience not to invest too much hope in the proposed economic stimulus package proposed by president-elect Barack Obama. Until it clears Congress, he said, "no one knows what the stimulus will be."