By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Alabaster officials are still planning to move forward with installing traffic lights at the intersection of Alabama 119 and Shelby County 80, despite plans to widen Alabama 119 within the next few years.

City leaders discussed the matter during a July 29 Alabaster City Council work session, which came a few days after the project to widen Alabama 119 received state funding.

As proposed, the about $10 million widening project would add two additional travel lanes and one center turn lane on Alabama 119 between Shelby County 26 and Shelby County 80.

Alabaster officials were working with the Alabama Department of Transportation to install a traffic signal at the Alabama 119-Shelby County 80 intersection when funding for the widening project was approved.

“ALDOT has encouraged us to go ahead with that traffic light,” said City Council President Scott Brakefield. “We hope to move forward with that soon.”

When it is installed, the new traffic signal will be constructed with the widening project in mind, Brakefield said.

“What we do now will be fixed for the future to where we won’t have to incur any additional cost in the future when the road is widened,” Brakefield said. “We want to make sure we won’t have to move any utilities when we move that traffic light after the road is widened.”

Alabaster officials previously said the widening project was awarded sooner than they anticipated, leading them to discuss the future of the traffic signal project during the July 29 work session.

Brakefield said the city is looking to work with ALDOT to have the new traffic signal operational by the end of 2013.

“The folks in Wynlake and some of the other subdivisions out there will be happy to see that (new traffic signal),” Brakefield said. “That’s a tough place to try to turn onto 119 right now.”