By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— After approval from the city’s attorney, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Inc., will conduct a traffic study in Pelham at the intersection of Ball Park Road and U.S. 31.

The decision to execute an agreement with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood was unanimously approved by the Pelham City Council at a March 7 meeting.

“It is very much related to the middle school project and the need to move as quickly as possible on that,” said City Council President Rick Hayes.

The project is not only related to Pelham Park Middle School, but the current Ball Park Road will also serve as an access point to many other things in the city, Hayes said. The proposed recreation center will be off this road, as well as mixed-use retail space, potentially the library and the entrance to an access point for the new trails system.

Municipal Department Manager for Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Keith Strickland, told the City Council that he has met with a sub-contractor several times concerning the study. The subcontractor is ready to go as soon as the attorneys OK the agreement.

The goal of the traffic study, according to Strickland, is to predict roadway and intersection improvements for the future.

“It’s going to be a few different phases,” he said. “Primarily, we are going to be studying not only existing traffic counts, but also the future projections.”

Strickland said the study will account for current middle school bus, drop-off and employee traffic; traffic that would be generated by a recreation center; and any developments in this area that will affect future traffic.

“All of that information will be taken to develop projected improvements, or recommendations along U.S. 31 as well as a lot of your local streets,” he said. “All the traffic that is going to come to your rec center and to your school, not only is it going to come down U.S. 31, but they are going to utilize a lot of your local streets to get there.”