By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Drivers soon may be able to more easily access a large parking lot at Alabaster’s Warrior Park if the City Council agrees to fund renovations to the park’s entrance.

Council members discussed the project during a May 2 work session, during which they said they plan to vote on the matter during their May 9 meeting.

If approved, the project will renovate and modify the entrance to a parking lot at the park near the intersection of Thompson Road and Warrior Drive. Currently, the park’s entrance off Thompson Road is slightly west of the road’s intersection with Warrior Drive.

As a result, traffic traveling to the parking lot from Warrior Drive must turn left onto Thompson Road and then immediately turn right into the parking lot.

If the council OKs funding for the project, it would move the entrance to the eastern corner of the parking lot, which would allow traffic on Warrior Drive to travel straight across Thompson Road into the parking lot. The current entrance on the west corner of the parking lot would be closed if the project moves forward.

Alabaster City Manager George Henry said the project would include moving the entrance, installing a few new traffic islands on the east side of the parking lot, removing the current traffic islands on the west side of the parking lot, restriping and adding a new seal coat to the lot.

Henry said by rearranging the parking lot’s layout and removing the traffic islands on the west side of the lot, the city will be able to maintain about the same number of parking spots serving the four baseball fields at the park.