By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – When the Alabaster City School System opens its new 365,000-square-foot high school in the next few years, system leaders don’t want any unforeseen traffic woes on the roads surrounding it, the ACS superintendent said during a Nov. 10 meeting.

“We want to make sure we have a professional look at this so we don’t make any mistakes and have traffic problems we could have solved ahead of time,” Alabaster School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said during the meeting.

During the meeting, the School Board voted unanimously to pay Dynamic Civil Solutions Professional Services $7,850 to conduct a traffic study on Thompson Road, Kent Dairy Road and the entire area surrounding the upcoming new high school.

After the company’s traffic study is completed, the school system will share the results with the Shelby County Highway Department, Vickers said.

The Board of Education voted in May to purchase more than 300 acres of currently vacant property between Thompson and Kent Dairy roads to house the new high school, which is slated to open in August 2017.

During the meeting, the Board of Education also voted unanimously to enter into a contract with Foster Land Management to clear portions of the 300-acre site in preparation for the new high school.

Through the contract, Foster Land Management will cut the timber and sell it, and ACS will receive the majority of the profits from the sale of the wood, Vickers said.

“Foster Land Management will keep 9 percent of the total value of the timber,” Vickers said of the contract. “Based on our research and (new high school project manager) Volkert (Engineering’s) research, that’s very fair.”

The school system has budgeted $84.5 million for the new high school and its athletic facilities, and is being funded using a portion of the $120 million in bonds the School Board approved in September. The high school will house at least 2,000 students, Vickers said previously.