Marengo County engineer Ken Atkins held a press conference Wednesday morning to address the county’s ATRIP funding.

The Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program is to address critical needs projects that will rehabilitate and improve current facilities and, in some cases, proved new facilities across the state of Alabama. The program is administered by the Alabama Department of Transportation.

There are six projects in Marengo County that will be funded through the Rural Assistance Match Program, which helps rural counties meet the 20 percent match requirements of the ATRIP funds. Three of the projects will be bridges, and three will be road resurfacing projects.

The bridge projects include the bridge on County Road 38 over Sand Creek, the bridge on County Road 44 over Dry Creek, and the bridge in Demopolis on Jackson Street over Whitfield Canal. The Jackson Street bridge is the longer bridge, not the bridge in the S-curve, and the funding for it will be provided by the city of Demopolis, not Marengo County.

The resurfacing projects include County Road 44 from U.S. Highway 43 to Station 256+08, County Road 53 from State Road 25 to the Perry County line, and County Roads 7 and 20 in the south end of the county.

Atkins said the bridges will take priority over the resurfacing projects, but he expects all five of his projects to be completed within two years.

He added that the bridge in Demopolis may take longer because of its design, but Demopolis Mayor Mike Grayson said he will contact the engineers and get the project going as soon as possible.