(a) The Commissioner of Transportation shall establish a local transportation capital program to provide state funding, in lieu of specific federal funding available, to any municipality or local planning agency for transportation improvements to any state or locally maintained roadway or facility that is deemed eligible for federal surface transportation urban program funding.

(b) The commissioner may request the authorization of special tax obligation bonds of the state to establish such state funding. In the absence of state funding in any year, specific and eligible federal transportation funding shall remain available. Such bonds shall mature at such time or times not exceeding twenty years from their respective dates as may be provided in or pursuant to the resolution or resolutions of the State Bond Commission authorizing such bonds.

(c) The Department of Transportation shall accept applications for such state funding from any eligible recipient, based on project priorities, through the appropriate regional council of governments. Any such state funding shall be provided to the recipient through guidelines developed by the Department of Transportation.

(d) Any transportation improvement funded pursuant to the program established in this section will have a service life of approximately twenty years.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, this program, when improvements are on a locally owned roadway or facility, shall not be deemed to be a proposed state action, activity or critical activity for the purposes of sections 25-68b to 25-68h, inclusive.