Funding for feasibility study to be sought from Metro Council

By SCOTT DYER
Advocate staff writer

The recently completed stretch of paved bike path that runs atop the Mississippi River levee from downtown Baton Rouge to LSU soon could be extended all the way to New Orleans.

The proposed levee bike path would run an estimated 110 miles and cost an estimated $33 million.

The first step is to complete a $250,000 master plan that could qualify the project for federal funds likely to cover 80 percent of construction costs. The other 20 percent would come from local and state sources.

City-parish Public Works Director Pete Newkirk said he plans to ask the Metro Council on Wednesday to chip in $12,500 to help fund the $250,000 study.

Bruce Wickert, an experienced cyclist who the heads the local Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, said a bike path has already been constructed from Audubon Park in New Orleans north almost to Norco.

Wickert said the New Orleans levee path is named the William Keller Memorial Path in honor of the man whose vision was to construct a bike path around Lake Pontchartrain.

Wickert said that if the proposed Mississippi River Levee Bike Path becomes a reality, it will likely be used in segments for recreational purposes.

“But you could travel the whole 110 miles about six hours at a moderate pace of about 17 miles per hour,” Wickert said.

Wickert noted that a number of bike paths have been constructed along European rivers such as the Danube and they have proven extremely popular.

Steven Wilson, president of the Pontchartrain Levee District, said work on the master plan for the levee bike path is slated to begin this year, and will take approximately nine months.

The Pontchartrain Levee District is putting up $50,000 for the study, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to provide an additional $125,000. East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Iberville and the three other parishes with levees on the eastern side of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans are being asked to kick in $12,500 apiece to fund the remainder of the study.

In a recent letter to Mayor-President Kip Holden, Wilson said about one-fifth of the total 110-mile bike path project will be constructed in East Baton Rouge Parish.

“The benefits include but are not limited to the stimulation of tourism and recreation-related spending that will assist the region with post-Katrina recovery, a positive impact on property values, improved quality of life and public health, and an increase in citizens’ and tourists’ access to the Mississippi River,” Wilson said in his letter.

Wilson noted that a 2003 study by the North Carolina Department of Transportation showed that a $6.7-million bike path along the Outer Bank now generates an estimated $60 million a year in economic benefits to the area.

Likewise, a 2002 University of Pennsylvania study found that bikers spent some $3.6 million per year for bike-related equipment to traverse the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile long system of biking and hiking trails that stretch from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md. The study found that another $3.7 million per year was spent on lodging and small items.