Demopolis and Marengo County will be receiving some road upgrades in the near future through the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program.

ATRIP is an Alabama Department of Transportation-administered federal aid highway program. It requires that 20 percent of the total project cost be matched with local funds.

The first project in Demopolis will be a bridge replacement project on Jackson Street over Whitfield Canal.

“The project has been approved, and we are just waiting to get started,” Demopolis Mayor Mike Grayson said.

The city applied for the project during the first ATRIP application process, but was not approved for the funding. The Alabama Department of Transportation soon came out with the Rural Assistance Match Program, which helps counties and cities that had a hard time meeting the 20 percent match required for ATRIP. RAMP allows cities and counties to receive state funds to help meet the matching requirements for the federal ATRIP funds.

“The county voted for RAMP and all of the ATRIP projects were folded under it,” Grayson said.

Grayson added that there is the possibility for more projects through ATRIP in the future, including the resurfacing of connector roads like Pettus Street and Maria Avenue.

“The resurfacing of streets will be the next project we apply for after the bridge project is finished,” he said.

In the county, there are several other projects to be funded by ATRIP.

There will be bridge projects on County Road 38 over Sand Creek and on County Road 44 over Dry Creek, and resurfacing projects on County Road 44, County Road 53, County Road 7 and County Road 20.

Marengo County Engineer Ken Atkins said the two bridge projects were already underway, and they are using ATRIP to speed the process along.

“We’re speeding up the process on the two bridge projects because we were already using those with our federal dollars,” he said. “For the rest of the projects, it’s just a matter of getting the paperwork in so we can get started on those.”

Atkins said that the resurfacing projects have to meet certain traffic count and classification criteria, but the county has applied for the maximum number of projects under ATRIP.