By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Construction crews are on schedule to complete the new Walmart Neighborhood Market store off Alabama 119 in Alabaster by fall of this year, and have already constructed the majority of the building.

For the past few months, crews have been constructing the 41,920-square-foot grocery store across from the current Publix shopping center on Alabama 119. The grocery store will be west of the parking lot fronting Alabama 119, and a gas station will be in the northern end of the parking lot.

The store’s primary access point will be at the intersection of Alabama 119 and Fulton Springs Road, and plans also call for a new right-hand turn lane off Alabama 119 south leading to the gas station parking lot.

Once it opens later this year, the Neighborhood Market will be the third in Shelby County. Walmart previously opened a Neighborhood Market store off Shelby County 17 in Helena and on Valleydale Road in North Shelby in former Winn Dixie supermarket locations.

Walmart Neighborhood Markets are smaller than the company’s Superstores, and primarily focus on grocery offerings, along with a limited selection of non-grocery items.

In December 2014, the Alabaster City Council approved an agreement with the MAP Development company to install new traffic signals at the intersection of Alabama 119 and Fulton Springs Road to allow for the new store. MAP will cover the cost of installing the new signal and modifying the intersection.

On Feb. 13, crews demolished the former A-1 Sand and Brick building on Alabama 119. For several years, the brick building housed the Seed Design company before a developer purchased the land to construct the Walmart Neighborhood Market.