Joe Louis Greenway to open 2 new miles of trail and new trailhead this year

The city of Detroit is charging ahead with its vision for the 29-mile Joe Louis Greenway (JLG), opening about two miles of additional trail segments and a new trailhead this year.

With the new segments, 8.4 miles of the greenway will be complete. Idrees Mutahr, chief greenway planner for the city, says another 7.1 miles are currently under construction and 5.9 miles have been funded but have yet to begin construction. Only 7.2 miles, roughly a quarter of the planned greenway, remains unfunded.

The first new segment stretches about half a mile from Joy Road to West Chicago Street, just north of the first dedicated JLG segment, which ran from Warren Avenue to Joy and opened in late 2022. (The greenway also includes sections of the previously constructed Detroit Riverwalk and Dequindre Cut.)

"That next stretch is pretty much complete at this point," Mutahr says. "It's landscaped. You can ride your bike on it."

Another short stretch, running about three blocks from Oakman Boulevard to I-96, is now complete. A new shared-use path along Oakman, running just shy of half a mile between Grand River Avenue and Chicago, will help to connect that segment to the new Joy-to-Chicago segment. A new trailhead and trail segment at Grand River near Oakman, currently under construction, will complete that connection and create a new destination for users to access the trail. 

City of DetroitThe future Grand River trailhead.
Mutahr estimates that the new trailhead will open this fall, with a public event celebrating the expansion of the greenway's western side to follow. The Grand River trailhead will include a plaza, a picnic shelter, and a sculpture by Detroit artist Austen Brantley commemorating Joe Louis' achievements outside the boxing ring. 

Just across I-96, another segment of trail, running about a third of a mile between Intervale Street and West Davison Street, is nearly complete. Mutahr anticipates it will be open by the end of August. Over the next one to two years, that segment's opening will be followed by improvements at adjacent Intervale Roselawn Park, which Mutahr notes was developed in the '80s and "has not seen much improvement for a long time." But with $400,000 from the city matching a $400,000 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, the park will be redeveloped as another greenway trailhead featuring a multi-sport court, a picnic shelter, a new playground, and a walking loop. 

City of DetroitImprovements are underway at Detroit's Intervale Roselawn Park, accompanying an adjacent new segment of the Joe Louis Greenway.
"That was at the request of some of the residents in that area," Mutahr says. "... Beyond just the scope of the greenway as this new facility coming in, they wanted to see their local neighborhood park improved in tandem with that. And so we took that up as an opportunity to add a new destination along the JLG while also meeting resident needs."

A 1.2-mile segment of greenway, running from Livernois Avenue to John C. Lodge Freeway, began construction this year, but Mutahr says it remains in the "early phases" of underground and utility work. Another half-mile segment is under construction in Highland Park between Hamilton Avenue and Woodward Avenue; Mutahr says completion is likely next year. A segment between Dequindre Street and McNichols Road, running about three-quarters of a mile, is also under construction and likely to open next year.

The greenway has seen heavy usage so far, even excluding the already highly trafficked Riverwalk and Dequindre Cut segments. The greenway's first trailhead, the Warren Gateway, has seen 17,000 users this year, and 29,500 users since it opened in 2023. The segment running from Oakman to I-96 has already seen 7,000 users since its opening this spring.

"It's an exciting project to be a part of," Mutahr says.