By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster leaders are working with Shelby County Highway Department officials to finalize the design of a project to extend Fulton Springs Road from its current terminus at Old U.S. 31 to U.S. 31 slightly south of the South Promenade shopping center.

In late December, Alabaster City Manager George Henry said Alabaster and Shelby County representatives met with the Alabama Department of Transportation to review the plan to extend the road.

Following the ALDOT meeting, the city began working with the county to set the project’s final design, and planned a meeting for early 2016 to review the project, Henry said.

“(The) next step is for us and county to finish design,” Henry said.

After the meeting, Henry said he will have a better prediction for the project’s timeline.

In October 2011, the Montgomery-based Aronov company announced its plans to build a 300,000-square-foot Alabaster Exchange shopping center on the property off U.S. 31. Construction plans called for the new shopping center to be about the same size as the South Promenade shopping center.

However, in March 2014, Aronov stepped away from the project after it was unable to attract a large retailer to anchor the proposed shopping center.

In February 2014, the Alabaster City Council voted to enter into a temporary $2.5 million line of credit with Central State Bank for “economic development purposes” on a portion of the proposed Alabaster Exchange land. The city used a portion of the money to purchase a few tracts of land on the property, which it plans to use to extend Fulton Springs Road.

City officials previously said they are continuing to work to attract developers interested in constructing a retail development on the property south of the South Promenade shopping center, and said extending Fulton Springs Road through to U.S. 31 will allow easier access to the property.