By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – An engineering firm will move forward with a project to add sidewalks along Second Street near Shelby Baptist Medical Center and the Alabaster Landing shopping center, after the City Council awarded the company a contract during a Dec. 11 meeting.

City Council members voted unanimously to award an engineering services contract to the Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood engineering company not to exceed $70,000.

In 2016, the city received a $367,200 grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation, and voted to provide a $91,800 local match, bringing the project total to $459,000.

Once completed, the project will add sidewalks and landscaping along Second Street Northeast from Fifth Avenue Northeast to Seventh Avenue Northeast.

Second Street Northeast runs south of the main Shelby Baptist campus off U.S. 31, and ties into the Alabaster Landing development, which includes the Jimmy John’s, Pizza Hut and Taziki’s restaurants.

The developer also is planning to construct additional office space at the Alabaster Landing, and city leaders said adding sidewalks along Second Street will promote pedestrian traffic from the hospital to Alabaster Landing while also encouraging future development south of the hospital.