Crews broke ground on the multimillion-dollar Lafitte Greenway Bike and Pedestrian path Tuesday.
The two-and-a-half mile bike and jogging trail is built along an old shipping canal and and connects six historic communities from the French Quarter to City Park. New athletic fields and a tree canopy will line the 12-foot-wide pedestrian trail.
Bart Everson is the co-founder of Friends of Lafitte Corridor, and one of the earliest supporters of the project. He says that the park will have a positive economic impact on the city.
"By building this greenway, there is going to be some stimulus and some economic revitalization of the surrounding areas," Everson says. "So it’s not just a bike path, but it represents a holistic vision of knitting neighborhoods back together, getting people out and active in the city, and that has definite economic impact."
The Lafitte Greenway is scheduled to take 11 months to complete.