Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
The western end of the tunnel under U.S. 31 when it was closed for renovations in July 2026.
The pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 31 at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store should be partially reopened by the time school starts in Homewood on Aug. 12, City Engineer Amy Zari said.
City officials closed the tunnel on July 6 for a renovation project that includes new lighting, handrails, brick pavers and other enhancements designed to create a safe, bright, welcoming area.
The tunnel was constructed in 1954 after the widening of U.S. 31, then known as Montgomery Highway. At the time, many students who attended Shades Cahaba Elementary School lived on the west side of U.S. 31. Rather than requiring hundreds of children to cross a rapidly expanding highway at street level, community leaders pushed for a pedestrian underpass.
To help make room for the tunnel’s west entrance, Hill Food Store, the predecessor to today’s Piggly Wiggly, provided a portion of its parking lot.
The city engineer said the tunnel has been a key feature in the city ever since, especially for students and parents at Shades Cahaba Elementary.
“It’s heavily used by parents and students of the school just as a safe crossing under U.S. 31,” Zari said. “Of course, the community is going to embrace something like that. I think this project shows our commitment to improving such a staple of the city with the beautification of the walls of the tunnel, the landscaping, redoing the surface of it to have that nice stone finish. I think it’ll be a nice end product.”
Rendering courtesy of the city of Homewood
Rendering shows how the western end of the tunnel should look after renovation.
Renovations to the tunnel will only be done on the west end of the passage. Murals that were painted in the tunnel and on the east end approaching the school during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 will remain.
“We’re not touching anything once it goes underground,” Zari said. “We’re just redoing all the surfaces leading up to the part that [is near the grocery store].”
Enhancements go beyond the tunnel itself, including a new green space.
“We collaborated with the property owner on The Pig property to get an easement for some green space added as part of the tunnel project,” the city engineer said. “That basically just gave us permission to go in and do the landscaping as part of the tunnel project.”
The city will be responsible for maintaining the landscaping, she said.
“We’re having irrigation put in as part of this project,” she continued. “That’ll definitely help make sure that plants continue to thrive, especially in the hot weather. I think that’s why this project was identified probably a couple years back, and finally we’re coming to construction. It’s been a long journey, but we’re here.”
While the tunnel should be partially reopened in time for the start of school, it’s hard to estimate the final completion date due to weather, Zari said.
