By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – The St. John the Baptist Parish Council on Tuesday approved a pair of task orders that will add another $33,000 to the cost of designing a multi-use levee trail in the parish.

The trail, which will connect to an existing trail in St. Charles Parish, is currently being designed in two separate phases that will extend into Reserve near East 29th Street. The architects on the project, Meyer Engineers of Metairie, requested additional funding from the parish to help pay for right-of-way acquisition work needed to move the trail forward.

According to project documents, Meyers requested an additional $14,560 for phase one of the path, which stretches from the St. Charles Parish line to Walnut Street in LaPlace, and $18,500 for phase two of the path, which stretches from Walnut Street to East 29th Street in Reserve. The change brings the total fees to $68,160 for phase one and $89,187 for phase two.

David Dupre, vice president of Meyer Engineers, said the state Department of Transportation and Development is footing the bill for 95 percent of the construction costs on both phases of the trail. He said phase one has a price tag of $585,000, while phase two is budgeted at $938,000.

Meyer said the design phase for phase one began in February 2009 and is expected to be completed sometime this year.

He said design for phase two began in February of this year and is expected to take 150 days.

The multi-use trail will eventually be part of a state-proposed 110-mile levee path running continuously from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

A consulting group recently completed a feasibility study to get surrounding parishes involved in the project.

The council next meets on March 9.