Lafitte Corridor path opening delayed till summer

Construction continues at the intersection of the Lafitte Corridor recreation path and N. Carrollton Ave.  Completion of the 2.6 mile path connecting the French Quarter in New Orleans and City Park is now set for early summer 2015
 

      

     The Lafitte Corridor, converting a largely derelict strip of land in the center of New Orleans to a skinny greenway stretching 2.6 miles from the French Quarter to lower Lakeview near City Park will be "fully open to the public by early summer 2015," reports the March 31 edition of the "Greenway Gazette," the digital newsletter of the Friends of the Lafitte Corridor (FOLC).  Construction officially began about a year ago.

When the bike path opens, riders
will have access to this bicycle
workstation complete with air pump
near N. Carrollton Ave. 

       The right-of-way was first the Carondelet Canal, completed in 1794, a small but critical waterway for small ships entering New Orleans using Lake Pontchartrain and Bayou St. John.  Much later the canal was filled in and it became a route into the city for the old Norfolk Southern Railroad.
       When complete the paved path will connect Basin St., the northern boundary of the French Quarter with N. Alexander St., a street leading to the City Park Ave. entrance to City Park two blocks away. 
        In the Treme neighborhood, near the F.Q., the corridor is wide with space for developed ball fields and recreation areas.  As the corridor moves northwest it narrows containing only the 12 foot wide path.
       The park was to open in the late winter of this year but apparently the addition of a new bridge over a drainage canal and other items added after construction began delayed the project.
       

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