City Park has received a $915,000 grant from the state to complete what will be a five-mile path around most of the park’s perimeter for bicycling or jogging, officials said Tuesday.

The grant from the state Department of Transportation and Development will extend the Marconi Drive bicycle path from its current stopping point at Harrison Avenue down to Zachary Taylor Drive, then create a major new sidewalk from there to the Pan-American stadium, said Bob Becker in Tuesday’s meeting of the City Park board. From the stadium, bicyclists can travel along the Wisner Boulevard paths back into the existing system, Becker said.

“This is really the completion of the whole ring of bicycling and jogging paths we started about a decade ago,” Becker said.

The new path will create a complete loop around the section of the park north of Interstate 610, and will make the area safer, park officials said.

“This new project will provide a ‘missing link’ in the Park’s current recreation plan,” said John Hopper, Chief Development Officer for New Orleans City Park. “In a couple of years we know Park guests will love using the paths.”

Officials have planned a bike path along Marconi Avenue for six years but negotiations between the state and federal government slowed the process. The path is funded with federal money, so the plans required multiple reviews by the state. Once approved by the state, the new plans had to go back to the federal level for approval, then again sent to the state level.