A new stretch of paved trail now runs along the Mississippi River levee in Baton Rouge, giving residents who live near the riverfront a direct walking and biking connection to downtown businesses. The extension adds roughly a quarter mile of path and ties into the broader Downtown Greenway network, according to WBRZ.
The Downtown Development District cut the ribbon on the project, part of an ongoing effort to weave the levee trail more tightly into daily life downtown, per the same WBRZ report. Whitney Hoffman Sayal, executive director of the Downtown Development District, said the new segment connects residents who were previously cut off from downtown, according to the station. Sayal also said the project lines up with the riverfront-connection goals laid out in Plan Baton Rouge III, the city's planning document.
A Long-Term Vision for the Riverfront
Plan Baton Rouge III, approved by the Metro Council Planning Commission in June, calls for major investments over the next decade, WBRZ reports. Among its roughly 80 recommendations are new housing, transit improvements, more pedestrian-friendly spaces, better connections to the Mississippi riverfront, and a possible riverfront sports complex, per the station's account.
Downtown business owners have been looking forward to the trail extension, according to WBRZ, and downtown leaders hope projects like this one will make the river a bigger part of daily life in Baton Rouge. Charles Daniel, owner of Geaux Ride, told the station that the city's and state's investment in the project is huge — part of what WBRZ describes as a billion-dollar downtown revitalization effort.
Residents Welcome the New Connection
Baton Rouge resident Daarrion Finley said the levee provides peace of mind and a place for community enjoyment, according to WBRZ. Finley also said he supports efforts to make downtown more walkable and accessible, the station reports.
Part of a Much Longer Trail System
The levee trail long predates this latest addition. It began as a 4.5-mile connection between downtown and BREC's Farr Park, and a gravel stretch from Farr Park to L'Auberge Casino & Hotel was paved with asphalt in 2020, adding another 8 miles, according to 225batonrouge.com. That publication has described the trail as 12.5 miles of paved, lighted pathway, while Explore Louisiana has put the figure at 13 miles — a discrepancy that appears to reflect different segments or project stages rather than a single settled number. Similarly, 225batonrouge.com has described the trail as a 10-foot-wide asphalt path, while Explore Louisiana lists it as 15 feet wide with separate lanes for cyclists and walkers or joggers.
Explore Louisiana notes that the path begins at the end of the one-mile riverfront promenade in downtown Baton Rouge and continues south toward L'Auberge. Earlier plans described in 2023 called for expanding the trail two more miles from near L'Auberge toward the East Baton Rouge Parish line, with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development covering 80% of that cost and the city contributing 20% through its MOVEBR program, per 225batonrouge.com. The Advocate, however, described that same era of planning as an extension of more than two miles running from near the Gardere neighborhood to the Iberville Parish line — a separate account of scope that the available record does not reconcile with 225batonrouge.com's version.
Years of Incremental Construction
The Advocate has reported that the levee-path expansion represents the fifth and final phase of East Baton Rouge Parish's Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan, with the parish handling design, construction and inspection services. Bike Baton Rouge president Drew Walker told the paper the extension would make it easier to connect with existing paths in St. Gabriel and could encourage more people to commute by trail.
Earlier segments were built in pieces over more than a decade. A 1.3-mile section between Ben Hur Road and L'Auberge was completed in 2014, and a later Metro Council-approved contract funded a 6.8-mile portion running from BREC's Farr Park Equestrian Center to Ben Hur Road, according to WAFB. Federal funds covered $1 million of that project, while a city-parish road-improvements half-cent tax supplied the remaining $650,000, the station reported.
Elsewhere downtown, a separate $1.2 million federally funded project has been planned to create a new pedestrian and bicycle access point at Florida Street and River Road, linking to the riverfront and levee path, according to the Downtown Development District. That plan calls for a multi-use path connecting the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Repentance Park and North Boulevard Town Square, along with crosswalk improvements at North Boulevard, Convention Street and Florida Street to help pedestrians cross River Road safely. The district has described the River Road project as one of the first components of the Downtown Greenway, designed to link its multi-use path directly to the Mississippi River Levee Trail.
Taken together, the levee trail forms part of a much larger network: The Advocate notes it connects to the 3,000-mile Mississippi River Bicycle Trail, which stretches from Lake Itasca in Minnesota all the way to Venice, Louisiana. For now, the newest quarter-mile link is a small but tangible piece of that sprawling vision — one aimed at making it easier for people who live near the river to walk or bike straight into the heart of downtown Baton Rouge.
