Shades Cahaba students paint mural on pedestrian tunnel

After a year of delays, the pedestrian tunnel at Shades Cahaba Elementary School is finally getting new paint.

The Homewood Star originally reported on this project in the April 2020 issue. But when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out as the paper was going to press, the project began to experience delays.

On March 8 of this year, Shades Cahaba art teacher Lisa Holland led her students to the tunnel to begin working on its new mural. Students turned the entrance into the tunnel into a rainbow of colors, and soon the “Shades Cahaba Way,” which are seven mottos for the school, will be painted on top.

Inside the tunnel, students helped paint a foreground of trees on March 18. As Holland corralled the energetic group of kindergarteners (who were quickly covering their hands and aprons in green paint), she said it was a dream come true.

“I was scared that we weren’t going to be able to finish because of COVID,” she said. “Finding a way to make this work during a time when they don’t have field trips and parents can’t eat lunch with them, it’s pretty fun. This is about as close to a field trip as they’re going to get.”

The tunnel is 2,543 square feet. It goes underneath U.S. 31 and has entrances and exits at Shades Cahaba Elementary School and at the Piggly Wiggly. Previously, the walls were gray, and Holland said she has been wanting to paint the tunnel for a while.

Watch the kindergartens in action as they paint the pedestrian tunnel.