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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
The western expansion to Shades Creek Greenway nearing completion in December.
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Photos by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
People walk down Reese Street in Homewood on Dec. 7. One of the city’s projects for 2024 is to add sidewalks along Reese Street.
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Photos by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
The city of Homewood plans to begin work on Kenilworth Drive and Ridge Road to address stormwater issues in the area.
The new Shades Creek Greenway extension is a present that Homewood runners just can’t wait to unwrap, some in the community say.
Homewood High student Josie West lives about 3 miles east of the new western end of the trail, near the Dunkin’ and across Lakeshore Parkway from John Carroll Catholic High School. The new stretch picks up at the former western end, at Columbiana Road, and winds behind Sam’s Wholesale, Walmart Supercenter and the Wildwood Centre shops.
“I run almost every day,” the 16-year-old West said. “This trail is new scenery, and it’s also farther from my house than it is the opposite way [eastbound] out on the trail, so it’s more convenient.”
Even though that new 1.4-mile stretch of pavement isn’t officially open yet, Councilwoman Jennifer Andress knows others have logged steps on the trail, but she’s not telling who.
“I have heard — I shall not name names — but certainly I’m deep in the running community,” the former Birmingham Track Club president said. “I have heard many people that have been back on that trail.”
The greenway, the Central Park playground and Reese Street pedestrian improvements are some of the more anticipated capital projects Homewood residents will see in 2024.
City Engineer Cale Smith said the greenway extension has been a long time coming.
“Some people would say 20 years,” he said. “They would say that they have been planning it for that long. But it’s been in construction since earlier this year [2023]. I think they started in the summer of this year.”
Another project coming in 2024 is the Saulter Road pocket park behind Samford University, which will be simple in its design, Council President Alex Wyatt said.
“We talked about putting some swings for some kids, and also there should be some seating areas where people can just sit and relax,” Wyatt said. “A lot of the park will just be sort of a passive park. But then there should be another part that ends up being more kid-friendly.”
Wyatt lives nearby and said his neighbors often tell him that they are really looking forward to it.
“That park has been in the works now for years,” he said. “It’s just taken a long time to get everything together, get the lease worked out with Samford, get the design done and everything. Everyone along Saulter and in that area have just been looking forward to it for a long time.”
The city pays Samford University a “nominal fee” to use the property for the park. It’s largely “a gift,” Andress said.
The city has already constructed the sidewalk leading to the park
“We built the sidewalk that goes to it, at least on one side,” Wyatt said. “It was always sort of a destination or intended to be a destination for that sidewalk.”
The pocket park, like the greenway extension, has had its share of early visitors.
“One day, I was driving past and saw some people walking around on it already,” Wyatt said. “Everyone’s been anxious to see it get built and now anxious to see it get completed and get open.”
Meanwhile, the playground at Central Park is slated for an overhaul this year.
“The playground will be fully accessible for children of all ability levels,” said Councilwoman Barry Smith. “The playground will offer installations for all ages and stages, from toddlers to older kids.
Demolition of the existing playground is expected to start at the end of January, and construction of the new playground is expected to be completed by late April to early May, which Smith called “prime playground season.”
“The iconic caterpillar, which has been in the park for many years, is sadly no longer up to code for inclusion on the new playground,” Barry Smith said. “The park board wants to keep it in some way. There has been a suggestion to work with a sign fabricator to include parts of the caterpillar into a new sign for Central Park.”
On Reese Street, Wyatt said a plan to add a sidewalk and lighting near The Battery Restaurant and Sports Bar should be ready for bids soon and could be completed in 2024.
“We’ve had a plan that we’ve been working on for a long time with Reese Street, to put in a sidewalk and some lighting to sort of connect that with the rest of downtown, sort of having a pedestrian-friendly pathway that gets you from Central [Avenue] to 18th Street,” Wyatt said.
Cale Smith cited several other projects slated for the new calendar year.
The city is about to seek bids for phase two of a sidewalk on Delcris Drive, which will go from Shades Glen Drive to West Oxmoor Road.
Homewood also has stormwater projects on the table to address previously identified flooding issues.
“We’re going to do a stormwater project on Kenilworth and Ridge,” Cale Smith said. “We’re about to start design on that, so hopefully that construction will start in 2024, later in the fiscal year. Then, hopefully, we’ll start design on another stormwater project. I don’t know which one that’s going to be.”
The stormwater projects will be funded by federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act, he said.
Homewood also will shore up some creek walls in the city, including at Griffin Brook Creek, which runs through Edgewood.
“Those are just the walls that hold up the lots that are on the sides of the creek,” Cale Smith said. “We are going to need to do some repairs on those walls.”
The city also has started design on a multi-trail project on Central Avenue near Griffin Creek, he said. “Multi-modal facility is what we’re calling it,” he said. “It’s like a bike trail and pedestrian trail along the creek.”
A grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation will fund that project. Andress said Griffin Creek “looks like a drainage ditch” today, but the multi-modal facility could transform it.
“It’s a really cool connectivity piece,” she said. “It’s going to connect Central Park to Spring Park in Rosedale. When you hit from there, the sidewalk system, it’ll take you up to Birmingham, where they have their TAP [Transportation Alternatives Program] grant proposal, which basically is a pedestrian access all the way up the mountain.
“Really, it’ll take you to the Vulcan Trail and into the city of Birmingham,” Andress said. “It’s a really big piece of the puzzle.”
Homewood has also applied for another state grant to improve ingress and egress to U.S. 31, as well as the side streets.
“It also does a lot of restriping and puts in sidewalks where we need them, where they’re missing,” Cale Smith said. “I think they [those grants] are usually awarded in January or February.”
Residents on the western side of the Rosedale community can expect construction to start on a sidewalk project from Spring Park to 18th Street South. That is not a city project but is instead being done by Jefferson County through its Community Development Block Grant program.
