To access federal funding for transportation improvements, USDOT requires that each Regional Planning Agency have an approved Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) with a fiscally constrained listing of eligible projects. Projects and programs must first be listed in the LRTP prior to receipt of federal transportation funding. Once included in the LRTP, these projects and programs can be further studied or designed as part of the annual Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) or included in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which is a four year listing of transportation projects using federal funds.