The Perkins Overpass Is Trading Free Parking for a Front Door You Can Walk Through

"Nobody wants to walk across that bridge," Fred Raiford, Baton Rouge's Director of Transportation and Drainage, told The Advocate this fall. He meant the nearly 90-year-old Perkins Road bridge over the railroad tracks, where the walking paths are narrow enough that he called them a danger to pedestrians.

That bridge explains the construction fencing now running along Perkins Road. It also explains a change regulars at the Overpass will notice before any trail opens. Once the project is finished, Raiford says, there will be no free parking under the interstate.

The Free Lot Was Always the City's Call

People usually describe the gravel under I-10 as just how the Overpass works. Its legal footing is narrower than that. The land under the interstate is city-parish property, and Raiford told The Advocate that this lets the administration decide whether parking there is free. "The administration believes they should have to pay there, particularly by the fact that the city owns the property," he said.

The finished design includes 41 metered spaces. That is 25 fewer than the temporary lot drivers are using right now. On-street parking in the plan will be metered too.

The temporary lot is a stopgap with an expiration date. It's a free, 66-space lot off Baywood Avenue, across from Bet-R Neighborhood Market, and the city has leased it until November. The lot is just under an acre. It belongs to The McEnery Company, a New Orleans real estate firm, and is listed for commercial redevelopment. The current zoning is light industrial, and restaurants and bars aren't among its standard permitted uses. Mi Mi Montagnet Bankston, one of the owners, told The Advocate that plans for the site aren't ready for public release. As of its September 2026 update, MOVEBR's project page still says businesses are open and free parking is available in the adjacent lot.

So the most convenient parking at the Overpass right now sits on borrowed land, and the lease ends next month.

The Merchants Asked for the Walk

This project didn't start at City Hall. BLDG 5 co-owner Misti Broussard told The Advocate that a group of Baton Rouge business people brought the idea to the community in 2020 to make the area more pedestrian-friendly. BLDG 5, Varsity Sports, Moreau Physical Therapy and Ivar's paid for the early plans, put them together, and presented them to the Metro Council in 2022. The council approved them a year later with some changes.

Broussard has backed the project from the beginning, and she has said plainly where she disagrees with the result. Fewer spaces, all of them metered, "doesn't feel like the right end product," she said. Kim Marousek, vice president of planning at the Center for Planning Excellence, looks at it differently. She argues that paid parking may encourage people to rideshare, bike or walk to the Overpass. "There's more of a mixing and community space that happens when you're walking to a place or biking to a place," she said.

Both views lead to the same place. The district is being redesigned so more people can walk in from the neighborhoods, and parking under the interstate will cost money.

What Is Actually Under Construction This Fall

MOVEBR's Perkins Road Overpass project broke ground on July 13, 2026. The project was first announced in 2023, and railroad crossing and utility schedules pushed back a start that had been discussed for fall or winter 2025. The route runs from Reymond Avenue, across the railroad tracks, to Christian Street. The Advocate describes it as a linear park about 0.2 miles long, roughly a five-minute walk, and open to trail users at any hour.

MOVEBR lists the scope as:

• A pedestrian and bicycle path that gives people on the Hundred Oaks side a route to the commercial side without walking the bridge
• A gated railroad crossing
• Overhead and low-level bollard lighting along the path and the parking area
• Wayfinding signs, bike racks, litter receptacles and landscaping
• Drainage upgrades
• 41 designated parking spaces

MOVEBR says the path connects Hundred Oaks, Poets Corner, Zeeland Place and the Garden District to the businesses on the commercial side. The Luster Group is the contractor, and the city expects completion by the end of 2026. The cost has been reported several ways. WAFB put it at $2.5 million before groundbreaking, MOVEBR's project page lists a current estimate of $2.8 million, and the city's groundbreaking release says $2.9 million.

The businesses under the overpass have kept their doors open the whole time. BLDG 5 and The Colonel's Club split the cost of temporary signs along the fence and the parking lot, and marked a clear walking path between work zones to their entrances. Before work began, Colonel's Club owner Jordan Piazza told WAFB he was worried about construction during football season, and Raiford said he didn't expect the work to be finished by then. Piazza has since told The Advocate that he's optimistic about the project.

A Second Project, on a Much Longer Timeline

The city's trail is only the first of two projects reshaping the Overpass. The state's I-10 widening runs overhead on a schedule measured in years, and it changes how drivers reach the district.

DOTD's plans call for permanently removing the Perkins Road on- and off-ramps. To make up for it, the I-10 eastbound exit to S. Acadian Thruway and the westbound on-ramp from Acadian will be lengthened, and S. Acadian Thruway will get more capacity. No removal date for the Perkins ramps has been announced. A preview came in September, when DOTD closed the westbound Perkins Road on-ramp overnight from September 13 through 20.

The state's Context Sensitive Solutions plan also covers the gravel lots. DOTD says businesses currently rely on under-interstate parking through Joint Use Agreements on "undefined gravel lots," which will be replaced with paved parking. Land freed up by removing the ramps is proposed for an extension of Greenwood Drive to Perkins Road. The project FAQ says under-interstate parking will be temporarily unavailable during that construction, with alternate parking, wayfinding and pedestrian paths planned. Whether those spaces are free or paid is a separate question. Raiford's comments put that decision with the city-parish.

The 2031 date comes from the project's Segment 1 page, which covers the stretch from west of Lorri Burgess Avenue to the Perkins ramps. In September 2025, WAFB reported that 2031 is three years later than the 2028 date originally given to the public.

West of the Overpass, a Bridge With Pelicans

The work closest to the Overpass right now sits just west of it. DOTD's current traffic guidance says crews are still working on westbound I-10 west of Perkins Road, building the new bridge over City Park Lake. The contractor reported that the final concrete pour for the westbound bridge deck was finished on October 21, 2025. The same report said Stage 1 covers the first phase of the westbound bridge, the Dalrymple service road and exit ramp, and roadway work between the lake bridge and Perkins Road, with completion expected in late 2026, weather permitting.

The finished bridge is designed to stand out. Plans show arches in the support structure and four 80-foot towers at the corners. Relief engravings will repeat the art deco pelican motifs found on the existing I-10 noise walls and on the Louisiana State Capitol. The design also includes enhanced lighting on the road deck, decorative LED lighting underneath, and archways set aside for public art. The plans add a roundabout at Dalrymple Drive and E. Lakeshore Drive, plus a multi-use greenway linking the University Lakes paths to the routes downtown.

E. Lakeshore Drive under I-10 has been closed to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists since November 2023. The project's original notice gave a start date of November 6, and a later project newsletter dates the closure to November 27. Both put the expected duration at about three years. That puts the estimate right around now, but DOTD hasn't announced a reopening date.

For the next few weeks, the Overpass restaurants Visit Baton Rouge listed this March are still reachable the old way. That list includes BLDG 5, The Colonel's Club, Chow Yum, Gail's Fine Ice Cream, Ivar's Sports Bar & Grill, The Overpass Merchant at 2904 Perkins, Zeeland Street Market, Duvic's, Magpie Café and Parrain's Seafood. The free Baywood Avenue lot across from Bet-R is the easiest place to park until the city's lease ends in November.

If you own a home within walking distance of the Overpass, a lit path to Christian Street and metered parking under I-10 may change how buyers see your street. The Natasha Engle Team follows these corridor projects closely and can show you how they're likely to come up in your home's pricing. Schedule a Complimentary Home Consultation & Market Valuation, and we'll walk through what the Overpass changes mean for your address.