The requirement to develop and adopt both long range and short range programs as a prerequisite to road construction is established in RCW 36.79.080, 36.81.121 and 36.81.130. Numerous studies have shown that road construction needs far exceed available revenue. Priority programming is the development and application of techniques designed to rank any array of potential projects in order of importance to serve as a guide in assisting a county legislative authority in the formulation of road programs and distribution of limited resources. Priority programming procedures for counties must be adaptable to a wide variety of situations.

Priority programming techniques shall be applied in the ranking of all potential projects on the road system of each county. They may be applied to all road and bridge projects combined in a single group, may be applied to individual functional classes of roads and further subdivided into rural and urban systems if desired, or by funding source(s). Priority programming will not be required, but is recommended, for the local access road system. However, bridges on the local access road system must be included in priority programming.

Each county engineer will be required to develop a priority programming process tailored to meet the overall roadway system development policy determined by their county legislative authority. Items to be included and considered, which may vary from county to county, in the technique for roads shall include, but need not be limited to the following:

(1) Traffic volumes;

(2) Roadway condition;

(3) Geometrics;

(4) Safety and accident history; and

(5) Matters of significant local importance.

Bridge priorities shall be established in accordance with WAC 136-20-060. A description of the priority programming technique to be used shall be submitted by each county engineer to the county road administration board, upon request.

The county road administration board, upon request, will provide assistance to counties in the development, evaluation or modification of their priority programming process in order to meet the requirements of this rule.

The priority programming process for roads shall be applied by the county engineer to all potential arterial, collector and bridge projects in the county, and to local access road projects if directed by the legislative authority. The resulting priority array(s) shall be updated not later than the first Monday in October and shall be consulted together with bridge priorities by the county legislative authority and county engineer during the preparation of the proposed six-year transportation program as described in chapter 136-15 WAC.

In order to assure that priority arrays were available and were consulted during the preparation of the proposed six-year transportation program each year, the resolution of adoption of such program by each legislative authority shall include assurances to this effect. A copy of the adopting resolution shall be forwarded to the county road administration board together with the six-year transportation program.

Each priority programming process will be based, at least in part, on existing road conditions. It is required, therefore, that in each county an adequate road inventory system be maintained. The inventory system shall be updated no later than April 1st of each year to reflect work done and improvements made during the previous year in accordance with requirements of chapter 136-60 WAC.