East Baton Rouge Parish to extend levee path

2011 November 11 WASHINGTON — United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today announced that four projects in Louisiana have been awarded a total of more than $3.6 million in federal grants by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) through the Transportation Enhancement Program. “I am pleased that these grants will provide funding for several projects vital to Louisiana’s transportation infrastructure,” Sen. Landrieu said. “These projects will improve quality of life, connectivity and economic potential in each community, and I strongly support these grant awards.” Among the grants is one for East Baton Rouge Parish. The Parish will receive $1,425,000 to construct a 10-foot wide by 6.5-mile long walking path along the crown of the levee from Farr Park to Ben Hur Road. This new construction will create a total of approximately 11 miles of paved levee path stretching from Florida Street in downtown Baton Rouge to the upriver edge of the Pinnacle Casino property. "This new extension will effectively take the Levee Path within 3 miles of the Parish boundary," said Mark E. Martin, founder of Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets. "Given the work being done downriver paving the levee from New Orleans to Norco and further upriver, we could see the levee paved all the way between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the next 10 or 15 years. Completing the paving of the levee between the two largest cities in Louisiana should reap tremendous economic benefits for the parishes the path passes through and the state," Martin added. Sen. Landrieu wrote to the LaDOTD in support of each of these important projects. Unfortunately, some in Congress have been working to cut funding for the Transportation Enhancement Program, despite the critical need for improvements to transportation infrastructure in Louisiana and throughout the country.