A bipartisan group of congressmen warned yesterday that a nearly $200 million building project at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System may not be finished on schedule.

While about $102 million has been allocated for the effort, additional funds needed to keep it on track are being directed to other VA projects around the nation, said U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills.

Mr. Doyle spoke at a sidewalk news conference in Oakland, across from VA Pittsburgh's University Drive hospital, with Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and Jason Altmire, D-McCandless.

"Our local veterans deserve the state-of-the-art medical facilities that were promised by the VA," Mr. Murphy said in a statement.

Just when funding would be made available to complete the project was not immediately clear. It was to be finished in 2011.

Laurie Tranter, a VA spokeswoman, said funding for the VA Pittsburgh project remains a high priority.

Without more funding, a construction phase scheduled to begin later this year would be delayed, Mr. Doyle said. That phase calls for construction of behavioral health and research facilities at the system's University Drive division and an ambulatory care building at its Heinz division in O'Hara.

Delays also would hold up a planned closure of the Highland Drive division in East Liberty once the construction project is completed, officials said. Keeping that division open would cost an additional $15 million a year.

Ms. Tranter said VA requested another $40 million for the ambulatory care facility for the fiscal year beginning in October, and that remaining funding needed to construct the behavioral health and research facilities would be a consideration for the following year's budget request.

Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter introduced legislation requesting that funding for the VA Pittsburgh project be raised from $189.2 million to $248 million, the level he said VA considered necessary to complete the initiative. That legislation is pending.

He said at the time that he was disappointed about the increased cost estimate and that the administration did not seek more funds for the project for the current fiscal year "despite the Pittsburgh project being ahead of schedule and ready for additional funding."

He said he believed that Congress "should fully fund this project now to avoid additional cost increases in the future."

The three House members introduced similar legislation last week.

Delays increase the total price tag because of rising construction costs and the need to keep the Highland Drive facility open, Mr. Murphy said.

Mr. Altmire expressed concerns about maintaining quality care at Highland Drive, noting widely publicized problems earlier this year at facilities slated for closure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

"We're going to do everything we can" to make sure the Pittsburgh VA project is going forward in a timely manner, he said.

The project is aimed at enhancing behavioral health and ambulatory care services and consolidating the health care system.

Funds have been made available to complete a 1,500-space parking garage at University Drive late this year, as well as residential units for homeless veterans and an administration building at Heinz in 2008, said area VA spokesman David Cowgill. An engineering building at Heinz also was scheduled for completion this month.