Those construction cones around town could be up longer than expected.

A shortage of asphalt has caused a delay in several projects.

In fact, in Broken Arrow, city officials say it has every one of their plans at a standstill. Including one near the high school; and traffic could be a problem when school starts.

"What happens is you get a lot of projects stacked up back to back to back in the hopper," says Kenneth Schwab, B.A. Engineering Director.

Just this week, crews were finally able to start up again.

"We were, where's the asphalt? And the contractors were saying the same thing. 'We're not quite sure where it is' ," Schwab says.

Playing the waiting game, they say, because of what wasn't going on at the Port of Catoosa.

Schwab says, "The Corp actually shut down the barge traffic down the Mississippi and up the Arkansas for awhile."

"Unfortunately, they hit us at a time when the Mississippi was realizing some torrential flows just like we were on our navigational system," says Bob Portiss, Tulsa's Port Director.

Shut down and out of commission for about three months.

"It's all weather related. And of course, many of our customers were affected by not being able to use barge transportation for quite some time," says Portiss. Including asphalt transportation.

But Bob says, it wasn't a significant amount. Still, significant enough that B.A. officials say no traffic there, meant headaches here.

"The quantity through the barge is much more than you can bring through truck, or through traffic. And that affected your cost. So, for any big community laying asphalt, it's still cost- economics driven," says Schwab.

Crews tell us they're working around the clock to get the asphalt finished before next Wednesday.