"Missing link" bike/ped path in City Park (New Orleans) funded

     



A .6 mile bike/ped path has been funded for this stretch of Marconi Ave. along the western border of City Park New Orleans.  The path will provide cyclists and pedestrians a way to avoid the busy traffic on the narrow Marconi Dr. and will connect with a completed path along Marconi Dr. from Harrison Ave. to Robert E. Lee Blvd.

   

   Path is now open.  I walked it 8-6-2021. There might be a few little things to do, like some direction signs, but cyclists and walkers are using it now.   

  Construction of a .6 mile concrete bicycle/pedestrian path in City Park along Marconi Ave. is nearing completion.   It connects Harrison Ave. and Zachary Drive and when finished cyclists and pedestrians will be able to ride the five mile perimeter of the northern half of the park without having to share a road carrying heavy traffic.

   The new stretch will give safe access for walkers and cyclists to the tennis center just to the east and the sports fields between Marconi Dr. and the Orleans Canal levee though they will still have to cross the heavy traffic on Marconi to reach their destination.

   Wet weather and delays in the delivery of  wood  for several boardwalks that will be built  to help with drainage in the new trail,  have delayed the opening day of the trail to sometime in midsummer 2021.  The boardwalks will be built in the gaps that now exist  in the concrete that has been poured. 

  A .9 mile stretch of Zachary Taylor Dr., parallel to and north of I-610 will be used to connect Wisner Ave. paved path with the new paved section.  Zachary Taylor Dr. is a lightly traveled road in the park, and should accommodate the non-motorized traffic safely without modification, park officials say.

  Some sections of the loop have been finished for several years.  The Wisner path between Bayou St. John and Wisner Ave. connects Robert E. Lee Blvd. and Esplanade Ave. at the main entrance to the park.  A highway bridge with a separate bike path crosses over the I-610 and the railroad tracks.  In 2018 a mile stretch along Marconi linking the Robert E. Lee with the shared path on Harrison Ave was opened.  And a separate concrete path running the length of the park's northern boundary connecting the two.

           (A broad sidewalk, .9 miles may someday be built along Zachary Taylor Dr. for pedestrian traffic. There is no room for a parallel paved path along Zachary Taylor Dr.  park officials claim  but traffic is mostly light along the lane and should not present a hazard for cyclists using it they add)
           The project will cost a little north of $900,000.
      

Some of this greenery will have to be chopped to make room for a new, wide sidewalk on Zachary Taylor Dr. in City Park New Orleans.

           A paved path threading through the stately live oak grove flanking the busy roadway will be greatly appreciated by cyclists and pedestrians.
           The long-awaited  expansion to the park's sculpture garden has just opened to rave reviews and it appears that the new Children's Museum, across the street, will open on schedule later this summer (2019).
          Remember the City Park streetcar ends at the main entrance to City Park at Lelong Ave.

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