By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Pelham residents will have a chance to share their thoughts on a proposed sidewalk project along Bearden Road near Pelham High School during an upcoming Alabama Department of Transportation public meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Riverpoint Church, which is at 375 Bearden Road.

An open house session is scheduled from 4-7 p.m., during which ALDOT representatives will display information about the proposed project, and will gather feedback from those interested in the project.

The public can also provide written comments to ALDOT during the meeting, or can mail them to the ALDOT Third Division office by Friday, Oct. 11.

As proposed, the project would add sidewalks from Industrial Park Drive from U.S. 31 to Bearden Road and along Bearden Road from Industrial Park Drive to Pelham High School.

During a February 2012 meeting, the Pelham City Council voted unanimously to pay a total of $211,000 over the next three years to match a more than $1 million Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization grant to fund the project.

Pelham officials previously said the city will pay grant matches of $40,000 this year, $20,000 in 2013 and about $151,000 in 2015. Murphy said crews would conduct engineering studies of the project in 2012, would prepare the work site in 2013 and 2014 and would construct most of the sidewalks in 2015.

Pelham officials previously said the sidewalks will help PHS students and parents stay safe while walking along Bearden Road near the high school. Fourteen-year-old PHS student Tyler Lee was struck by a vehicle and seriously injured when he was walking along Bearden Road in August 2011.