FHWA official outlines Oregon Federal Lands Access Program, shares statewide needs assessment to Bend MPO TAC

Jamie Lemon, a transportation planner with the Federal Highway AdministrationWestern Federal Lands Highway Division, told the Bend MPO Technical Advisory Committee that the Federal Lands Access Program funds transportation projects that provide access to or are located on federal lands and that Oregon receives more FLAP funding than any other state. Lemon said the office expects to open a competitive call for projects for Oregon in October and that final programming decisions would come roughly a year later.

The presentation matters because FLAP supports roads, bridges, trails and transit projects that connect high-use recreation sites and other federal land destinations to the wider transportation system. For Central Oregon and Deschutes County, Lemon and TAC members said FLAP has paid for several major projects including Skyliners Road reconstruction and work on Century Drive and Cascade Lakes Highway.

Lemon summarized how FLAP works: eligible applicants are state departments of transportation, local governments and federally recognized tribes; land management agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service are project partners but not recipients. She described a competitive selection process managed by a Programming Decision Committee (PDC) and a Technical Advisory Group that vet and score applications. "Oregon actually receives the most FLAP funding out of any state in the country," Lemon said, noting the formula accounts for federal-land area and road miles; she estimated Oregon receives "between 35 and 37,000,000 per year" through FLAP.

Lemon also described a statewide FLAP needs assessment Western completed after outreach to ODOT, MPOs, counties, tribes and land managers. The draft report compiles about 170 potential FLAP needs across Oregon; some entries are defined projects while others are higher-level needs that could require planning studies. "We identified about a 170 potential FLAP needs," she said, and the team mapped those needs by ODOT region, with many high-scoring items located in the Bend area.

For the needs assessment Western used the FLAP scoring rubric (safety, preservation, recreation/economic development, mobility, sustainability/environmental quality) but removed readiness and support from scoring because many entries were early-stage. Lemon said the highest possible score under the approach used was 90 and cautioned the prioritization was limited by available data and assumptions made during scoring. She said the PDCwhich includes federal, state and local representativeswould make final programming decisions when the call for projects is run.

Lemon said staffing reductions in Western Federal Lands have constrained the program; the office has about 150 staff and a smaller program-management team than in prior years, which contributed to a later decision to run this year's call. She told the TAC she expects a three-month application window starting in October and a review period from February to April, with final decisions around June or July of the following year. "Optimistically speaking, we're really hoping that we will be able to open up a call for projects for Oregon starting in October," Lemon said.

TAC members asked about the scoring mechanism, audience for the report and whether the report could be used by MPOs and counties. Lemon said Western used the same rubric normally applied during FLAP calls and that the report was intended primarily for ODOT, counties and MPOs as a reference to coordinate potential applicants and incorporate federal-lands needs into other planning efforts. She said Western would share the draft report and an interactive web map of identified needs and could provide more granular project location data on request.

Members also asked for summaries of past FLAP-funded projects in Deschutes County and for project lists that cities could publish. Lemon said Western had compiled statewide FLAP totals and that since FLAP became a program in 2012 Oregon had received about $376,000,000 in FLAP funds; she offered to provide more localized project lists for Deschutes County and Bend. "Since FLAP became a program back in 2012, the states received 376,000,000," she said.

Lemon said some FLAP funding can supplement transit or shuttle services and cited a summer shuttle that supports mountain-bike access as an example of a FLAP-funded transit application.

The TAC asked Western to circulate the draft needs-assessment report and mapping tools to TAC members and invited Lemon to provide additional data to support local outreach and project development. The presentation closed with an offer from Lemon to share the report link and provide follow-up information to TAC and MPO staff.