Pennsylvania- Federal Lands Access Program

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Establishing PDC

January 10, 2013

Eastern Federal Lands (EFL) approach to administering the Access Program.

As a result of the recent MAP-21 legislation which established the Federal Aid Access Program (Access 

Program) and with the receipt of initial program implementation guidance from Federal Lands Highway 

Headquarters staff (FHWA, HQ), the EFL staff will contact our new partners and establish the 

appropriate Points of Contact (POCs) for each partner. Our program network will include both internal 

and external staff resources. 

The internal staff resources will consist of, but not be limited to, EFLHD, HQ FLH, and the Federal Aid 

Division Office (DO) for each of the states within the EFLHD geographic area of responsibility. The 

external staff partners will come from the various Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs), State 

DOTs (SDOTs), local public agencies and/or local government agencies (LPAs and/or LGAs), and possibly 

the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) within each of our states. The FLMA partners in each 

state will consist of the five legislatively defined principal partner agencies, i.e., the US Forest Service, 

the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), the National Park 

Service (NPS), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) who own and maintain at least one federal 

land parcel in that state. The FLMA partners will also include, as appropriate, any other FLMA who owns 

and maintains a federal land parcel in that state where access to that parcel is provided via any travel 

mode deemed eligible for the receipt of funds under the Access Program requirements.

Our primary task for the first 6 months of FY2013 will be to create the blanket Programming Decision 

Committee (PDC) agreement in each state. As defined in the MAP-21 legislation, the membership of the

tri-party PDC in each state will consist of the FHWA Eastern Federal Lands, the SDOT, and the LPA or 

LGA, each organization with one member representative. Reflective of the initial Access Program 

implementation guidance issued by FLH HQ, the FHWA representative in each state will be an EFL staff 

member. During this process, EFL staff will work with the respective FHWA DOs and SDOTs to establish a 

suitable and acceptable LPA representative. This will be accomplished by the conduct of the following 

activities:

1. Establish PDC representatives

a. The EFL Access Program Manager and Coordinators will each be assigned a group of 

state, District of Columbia, or territory entities for which they will preside as the PDC 

representative for the FHWA. Other FHWA staff, from either the appropriate Federal 

Aid or Federal Lands division office, may be included as support staff when needed.

b. EFL will contact their respective Federal Aid DO Forest Highway (FH) contact and solicit 

the DO’s recommendation as to the specific LPA agency and/or member position. If no 

appropriate agency or position is recommended by the DO, then the SDOT will be 

contacted and requested to recommend an LPA PDC member.
Pennsylvania- Federal Lands Access Program

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c. EFL will contact the SDOT FH POC and request the name or position that will serve as 

the SDOT representative on the PDC. Further, the SDOT will be requested to provide 

the recommended LPA and the name or position of the LPA member on the PDC. 

d. During the PDC member identification process, the EFL Access Program Managers will 

notify the principal FLMA representatives in that state of the PDC candidates.

e. Upon identification of the PDC members, the EFL Access Program Managers will notify 

the principal FLMA representatives in that state of the PDC selection and set up an initial 

conference call to verify all POC’s for the PDC members. EFL will provide the meeting 

agenda and minutes of this meeting to all participants.

2. After the initial phone calls, EFL will send a letter to the SDOT commissioner/director notifying 

that the Access program PDC is established and will include the member position titles. An 

email will also be sent to the respective FHWA DO and SDOT reiterating what was discussed on 

the phone. The e-mail will also include links to the MAP-21 legislation and MAP-21 DOT 

website. The following links will be included in the email:

a. Access Program Legislation: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS112hr4348enr/pdf/BILLS-112hr4348enr.pdf

b. Access Program Guidance: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/guidance/guideflap.cfm

3. After the PDC is established, draft state-wide program agreements will be sent via email to the 

SDOT and LPA representatives for their review and comment. Drafts of each of the specific 

statewide program agreements will be forwarded to EFL legal counsel for review and comment. 

Upon acceptance of the terms and conditions contained in each program agreement by the 

three PDC members, EFL will coordinate preparing and distributing the final agreement for 

signature and final execution.