By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Alabaster soon will be getting a traffic light at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Old U.S. 31 near the Carmeuse Lime Company plant, after the Alabaster City Council approved the installation of the light during its March 5 meeting.

The intersection has been the scene of several wrecks over the past several years. Old U.S. 31 is a two-lane road, and U.S. 31 is a four lane divided highway at the intersection, which is slightly south of the Colonial Promenade shopping center.

Crews with the Stone and Sons contracting company will begin work on the project “as soon as possible,” said Alabaster City Administrator George Henry. Henry said the light likely will be operational in about 60-90 days.

During the March 5 meeting, the council approved up to $15,000 to install the signal.

“This is a great deal,” Ward 4 Councilman Rick Walters said during the meeting.

Ward 6 Councilman Scott Brakefield said the intersection is dangerous, and said the city could one day move the intersection a few hundred feet north once the upcoming Alabaster Exchange shopping center is completed.

“This is a needed traffic light. This (light) will definitely serve to prevent a number of wrecks that have happened at this intersection,” Brakefield said. “It is our hope that once the Alabaster Exchange is completed, we will be able to move it down the road a little bit and just bring Fulton Springs Road straight across (to U.S. 31).”