The Downtown Greenway—a 2.75-mile biking and pedestrian corridor that will link downtown with inner-city neighborhoods, City Park, the LSU lakes, Southdowns neighborhood and beyond—moved one step closer to becoming a reality this morning, when officials dedicated a trailhead to the greenway at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Expressway Park in Old South Baton Rouge.
Expressway Park is a BREC park under the interstate system at Myrtle Avenue and 11th Street that will be a key connector along the greenway, with 700 linear feet of new trails and facilities that will include bike racks, accessible ramps, and connections to the pathway from two parking lots.
“This is very significant,” says Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer, whose agency has spearheaded the greenway project. “This section of the greenway ties in Beauregard Town, downtown, Old South and Mid City and is headed to City Park and the Lakes.”
BREC also is playing a key role in the development of the greenway. At today’s dedication of the trailhead, BREC Superintendent Carolyn McKnight announced BREC will fund badly needed lighting for the football field and basketball court at Expressway Park.
“We are going to make it happen,” McKnight says. “The kids will have lights and their mommas will no longer have to shine the headlights from their cars onto the field so they can see to play.”
It’s unclear what the timeframe or price tag for the lighting project will be. Lighting the field is more complicated than it might be otherwise because of the interstate overhead. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will be involved in the project and likely will impose special requirements to ensure the new lights do not impair the vision of highway drivers.
Financing for the project, which could cost as much as $80,000, will come from BREC’s capital fund, Imagine Your Parks II.
—Stephanie Riegel
