By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Various new phases of a multi-use path atop and near the levees on both sides of the Mississippi River are starting to take shape in all three River Parishes.

On Monday, the St. Charles Parish Council approved funding for the final segment of the path on the east bank, which will link the path continuously from the New Orleans area to St. John the Baptist Parish.

The council approved a $974,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation and Development that will allow the parish to extend the path from the Upper Guide Levee of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to the St. John the Baptist Parish line. Two other phases in the path are currently under construction in New Sarpy and Norco. Once those phases are complete, the path through St. Charles will be continuous.

St. Charles Parish spokesperson Renee Simpson said down ramps for the newest section of the biking, walking and jogging trail will be at Country Cottage Estates and at Evangeline Road.

Once all of the phases through St. Charles are complete, the path will extend continuously from Audubon Park in New Orleans all the way to the St. John the Baptist Parish line, where an additional five miles of the path are also complete.

The second phase of what is currently a three-phase project to run the path through St. John Parish was recently completed and is now ready for use. The path picks up at the parish line and extends to Our Lady of Grace Church in Reserve, where a drop down ramp leads walkers and bikers back down to road level. The bulk of the construction cost was paid for with more than $1.3 million in grants from the DOTD.

Simpson said the ongoing multi-use path projects in both St. John and St. Charles parishes combine funding sources and oversight from federal and state agencies working with each parish. The parishes pay for 5 percent of the estimated construction costs for each phase, with the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Enhancement Program, through the DOTD, picking up the rest. The parishes are also working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the design and engineering of each phase.

While various phases are simultaneously in motion in St. John and St. Charles, officials in St. James Parish are about to begin work on levee paths of their own. The St. James Council recently approved resolutions accepting DOTD grants for paths on both sides of the river. The parish broke ground on the projects earlier this month.

The parish will first begin on the west bank, with a path extending from Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie eastward to the Math and Science Academy. The parish has a $1.08 million contract with Barriere Construction to complete the work.

The council has also approved an agreement with the Pontchartrain Levee District so the parish can construct a similar multi-purpose trail on the east bank levee. Roussel said the parish has submitted a $1.17 million grant application for the 2-mile trail from the Gramercy Fire Station to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Paulina. The path in that area will run along the base of the levee in an effort to limit interference with the Christmas Eve bonfire tradition in Gramercy, Lutcher and Paulina.

Officials in St. Charles are also working on multiple phases of the levee path on the west bank. In Ama, Barriere Construction has begun preparations for a 3.29-mile portion set to connect to the existing path in Jefferson Parish and extend to the Davis Diversion East Guide Levee. The council approved the $797,000 construction contract for the path at the end of February, and the phase is expected to be complete in September.

The remaining two phases on the west bank of St. Charles stretch from Elm Street in Hahnville to Louisiana Highway 3142 and from Louisiana Highway 3142 to the St. John Parish line.

Simpson said the parish intends to apply for funding for these two phases when the application cycle reopens in 2013. Existing sections of the path already run through Luling.