Landrieu gets BR bike path $1 million

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 2 p.m.

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The bike path that runs along the top of the Mississippi River levee from downtown Baton Rouge to LSU is about to get about 9,500 feet longer, thanks to a federal earmark arranged by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

City-parish Chief Engineer Bryan Harmon said Congress appropriated $1 million in the federal transportation bill to extend the levee-top bike path from Skip Bertman Drive to BREC’s Farr Horse Activity Center, located about half mile south of Brightside Lane.

The city-parish already had begun designing the project but had no money for construction, Harmon said.

In a telephone interview Friday, Landrieu, D-La., said the project was requested by Mayor-President Kip Holden.

“I know earmarks have gotten a bad name, but they’re really just projects,” Landrieu said.

She noted that every year,  there are thousands of requests, but only a few hundred actually get funded.

Landrieu said she pushed this particular project because she thinks it is important for the downtown riverfront.

“I thinks it’s a great investment, and I was happy to do it,” Landrieu said.

The project is an extension of the three-mile-long, 15-foot-wide paved path from Skip Bertman Drive to downtown that opened in 2006.

That project totaled $2.2 million, and included 150 lamp posts.

Harmon said the second phase does not include money for lighting.

Harmon said a formal agreement needs to be worked out between the state and the city-parish to access the allocation through the Federal Highway Administration.

Bruce Wickert, who chairs the Capital Region Planning Commission’s bike and pedestrian committee, applauded Landrieu’s efforts to fund the second phase of the levee bike path.