FLORENCE — The Florence City Council and the Lauderdale County Commission will meet this afternoon to discuss the merits of two state road and bridge grant programs.

The two programs — Rural Access Match Program, or RAMP, and Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation Improvement Program, or ATRIP — provide money for road and bridge improvements.

The RAMP program provides $5 million for counties to replace bridges that school buses cannot cross. ATRIP has $10 million, which requires a 20-percent match from the local governments and can be used for roads and bridge repair.

If the county commission goes with the RAMP program, the city of Florence, would have only a small bridge on Mars Hill Road that would be eligible.

The county could replace as many as 20 bridges throughout the county with the $5 million, officials said.

Florence has applied for $7.4 million in ATRIP funds to resurface North Wood Avenue and proceed with the initial phase of the West College Street bridge corridor that would connect downtown Florence to Alabama 20.

The meeting is at 3 p.m. in the City-County Government Building Conference Room.