By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster police and fire departments have reopened a portion of Smokey Road in southern Alabaster after crews with Alagasco finished repairing a natural gas leak near the intersection of Smokey Road and Robinson Drive.

The city received a report of the gas leak shortly after 3 p.m. on Sept. 15, prompting the fire and police departments to close Smokey Road between its intersection with Alabama 119 and Wooten Road, said Alabaster City Manager George Henry. During the about four-hour closure, police officers helped to direct traffic through subdivisions around the gas leak.

The road was reopened to all traffic shortly after 7 p.m., Henry said. No evacuations were ordered as a result of the gas leak.

The leak came a few hours before Meadow View Elementary School was scheduled to hold its “Have a Ball with Learning” event, which began at 6 p.m. The event, which drew several hundred visitors, was held without incident.

During the road closure, emergency crews encouraged drivers to use the Green Valley subdivision, the Scottsdale subdivision or Shelby County 24 as a detour to reach the school.