The Minister for the Environment is expected to receive a final report within the next two weeks on what should be done with the controversial Waterford City bypass.
The National Roads Authority has confirmed that €8 million that was to have been spent on the project this year will now be diverted to other projects around the country.
The €400m project is being delayed by uncertainty surrounding what is going to happen to the Viking settlement that was uncovered on the proposed route on the banks of the Suir.
The bypass was due to start this year but will not now start until next year at the earliest.
RTÉ News understands that it will cost in the region of €10 million to fully excavate the site, if that is what the new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, decides.
Archaeologists say the Viking site could be one of the most important such sites remaining in Europe.
The National Roads Authority was to spend €28 million on the road project this year.
Of this, €20 million is to be spent on giving compensation to landowners, with the remaining €8 million diverted to other projects.
The NRA said the bypass remains a very important project for the authority that will be started as soon as it knows what the Department of the Environment decides to do with the Viking settlement.
