SAFETEA-LU FLH Programs

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

On August 10, 2005, the President signed into law the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). With guaranteed funding for highways, highway safety, and public transportation totaling $244.1 billion, SAFETEA-LU represented the largest surface transportation investment in our Nation's history. The two landmark bills that brought surface transportation into the 21st century—the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)—shaped the highway program to meet the Nation's changing transportation needs. SAFETEA-LU built on this firm foundation, supplying the funds and refining the programmatic framework for investments needed to maintain and grow our vital transportation infrastructure.

SAFETEA- LU continued the Federal Lands Highways (FLH) program providing funds for transportation planning, research, engineering, and construction of highways, roads, and parkways and transit facilities that proved access to or within public lands, national parks, and Indian reservations. The FLH program was subdivided into four core areas:

FLH program authorizations thru 2009 for Indian Reservation Roads (IRR), Park Roads and Parkways, Refuge Roads, and Public Lands Highways total $4.5 billion. In 2012, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) eliminated the FLH Program and created the Federal Lands Tribal and Transportation Program (FLTTP). However, all projects previously authorized under the FLH Program will still be administered under previous SAFETEA-LU rules and regulations.

List of Programs