The SLOA is a form that is issued for all federally funded projects let by Local Governments (LG). The LG must request and obtain authorization to proceed with the project work, authorization is in the form of a SLOA. FIN provides a signed FPAA to the District on all federally funded projects let by an LG.

The LG must have a SLOA with the approved environmental clearance and a FPAA signed by FHWA prior to advertising projects with federal funding

. The Districts generate the SLOA and obtain all required signatures.

For LG-performed transportation projects that include construction involving state or federal funding, up to three SLOAs (and FPAAs, if federal funding is involved) may be required by TxDOT and issued during the course of the project. The first SLOA (and FPAA, as appropriate) is required prior to the preliminary engineering phase, the second SLOA (and FPAA, as appropriate) is required prior to the acquisition of ROW or the accommodation of utilities and the third is required prior to initiation of advertising for construction.