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.