A new two-mile section of the Joe Louis Greenway opened on October 7, 2025, between Joy Road and Intervale Street on Detroit's west side. The opening came with a bronze Joe Louis statue at a new trailhead at Grand River Avenue near Cloverdale Street. The statue, by Detroit sculptor Austen Brantley, honors Louis for breaking racial barriers in golf rather than boxing.
He was the first African American to play in a PGA-sanctioned tournament. He also created the Joe Louis Open in Detroit. The segment includes new sidewalks, bike paths, landscaping, lighting, and steel panel fencing for safety, plus emergency call boxes.
The trailhead at Grand River and Cloverdale has an open-air shelter, a plaza, and resurfaced alley access for food trucks and events. It joins the existing Warren Gateway Trailhead, a mile and change to the south. The full Joe Louis Greenway, when finished, will be a 27.5-mile loop connecting 23 Detroit neighborhoods plus Highland Park, Hamtramck, and Dearborn.
The route uses an eight-mile abandoned Conrail rail corridor the city bought, plus connectors and on-street protected bike lanes. The southern leg ties into the Dequindre Cut and the Detroit RiverWalk. The western leg ties into the new Southwest Greenway, which connects to Michigan Central Station.
Construction has been moving in pieces. The original Warren Avenue to Joy Road segment opened in 2023, and PeopleForBikes named it one of the best new U.S. bikeways of 2024. The October 2025 opening adds two miles north of that.
Roughly six miles of the loop are now complete. Another six are expected to open by the end of 2026. Total project cost is around $240 million.
Crews have hauled out roughly 31,000 tires and 600,000 tons of mixed debris from the rail corridor since construction started in 2021, according to the city's General Services Department. The framework plan, funded by a $2 million Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation grant in 2017 and developed by SmithGroup, set the route through five council districts.
Joe Louis's daughter Joyce Barrow-Henderson was at the statue unveiling, along with his son Joe Louis Barrow II and great-nephew John Barrow. The trail is named for him. Grand River Ave. at Cloverdale St. (trailhead), Detroit
