Nicholls, along with the city of Thibodaux, is making plans to have an asphalt bike path made that will connect to Bayou Lafourche and eventually end up in Peltier Park. “Right now we have a grant, we had it from 1995, for $300,000 to run from downtown Thibodaux all the way to Bowie Road,” Dr. Timothy Mead, assistant professor of health and physical education, said.

Presently, nothing has been done because the city of Thibodaux is waiting on the Department of Transportation and Development to tell the city whether or not Highway 308 and Highway One will be a part of a couplet system that will have one way traffic on each road, Mead said.

“They are not going to decide for a couple of years if they want to make it one way, but, if they do, it is going to effect how we lay the trail down, that is why we have not done it yet,” Mead said.

Right now the city has the money to go from downtown Thibodaux all the way to Bowie Road on both sides of the bayou.

A five foot wide asphalt path will be put in on both sides of the Bayou, assuming the couplet system goes in place.

If the system is not used, then only the Highway One side in between the highway and the Bayou will be paved, and the path there will be an eight-foot-wide asphalt path.

“Right now, there is only plans for a tow-mile section of the path to be built, but the city is going to eventually have 10 and a half miles of bike path,” he said.

The path would go from Laurel Valley all the way up to E.D. White plantation. The city would also like to put a path along Canal Boulevard and Jackson Street.

The railroad tracks that the city has started pulling up that cross Canal would be paved over, a path is also planned to be put through Peltier Park.

“(The city) just got money this year, $150,000 to put a path around the water treatment facility by the civic center, and they are going put a bridge in right there,” Mead said.

The city also plans to eventually put in some pedestrian bridges crossing the bayou.

“What I wanted to do when I got money last spring, $156,000, was to continue the path through Nicholls property,” Mead said.

The city of Thibodaux is committed to pave along the bayou by the fountain between Highway One and Bayou Lafourche. Mead plans to have the path go from the bayou down Bowie Road behind the softball fields, baseball and intramural fields and by the hospital back up to Audubon. It will cross Audubon by the Nicholls soccer field, and end by Babington residence hall.

“This year I am going to ask for more money to extend down Audubon Drive since there is no sidewalk,” he said.

Future plans would include lights and emergency call buttons along the path, but right now money is available only for the actual path, Mead said.

The funding for the project is through a reimbursement grant. Nicholls will not see any of that money until the path is built, and then the state will pay them back for it.

The Student Government Association donated $1,000 to help get the project going. The blueprints were presented to the SGA, and they decided from there to help with the funding of the path, Brent Callais, SGA president said.

The plans have not yet been drawn yet, but are being worked on by William Steib, the campus architect. Nicholls will then put the plans out on bid, and get to work on the construction of the path

“Construction would probably take a month or so. We have to dig a lot of culverts, there are a lot of drains, so we are saying at least a month. Then we have to prep the surface too,” Mead said.

The path will be constructed out of asphalt because asphalt is softer to walk/ run on than cement. The impact force would not be as great, even though cement would be more durable and would last longer, he said.

“With cement there are cracks every where, with asphalt there is a continuous surface,” Mead said.

This path would provide alternative transportation that is very safe for people to walk, run, bike or roller blade, without having to worry about traffic, and will also enhance recreational opportunities for the city, University, faculty, staff and students, he said.

Last year the SGA received numerous complaints from students not being able to roller blade on the campus side walks, Callais said.

“If the Thibodaux part comes on line, this could lead to more students from Thibodaux riding their bikes to school in the near future,” Callais said.

Callais said that this is definitely some thing that will be used.

“There is no way to get to downtown Thibodaux if you are walking, there is no continuous sidewalk, ” Mead said.

The nearest trail is over 40 miles away, the paved levee from Destrehan to Audubon Park, but most people do not want to drive that far to exercise, Mead said.

“Since the state gave away $8 million for these types of projects last year, I figured why not tap into that,” Mead said.