For a short stretch this fall, you can watch both the river Grand Rapids has had for a century and the river it is getting, on one downtown afternoon. At the upstream end, the Sixth Street Dam is still the first major barrier for salmon swimming up from Lake Michigan, and fish and anglers gather there the way they do every fall. Downstream, below the Blue Bridge, water is running over boulders that were not there in June. The dam that draws the salmon is not part of this construction. The rapids are forming in the four dams' worth of river below it.
The Sixth Street Dam is staying, and that is the key to this fall's walk.
The dam that stays
The Lower Reach project, the first phase of the Grand River Restoration, is removing four low-head dams on the stretch from just upstream of the Bridge Street Bridge to the Fulton Street Bridge. The City's project page says plainly that the Sixth Street Dam, between Fish Ladder Park and Sixth Street Park, belongs to a separate project.
That separate phase is called the Upper Reach. It looks at removing and replacing the Sixth Street Dam, which is the first sea lamprey barrier on the Grand River. Experience Grand Rapids reported in late September that it is still going through environmental impact studies and analysis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lamprey barrier also set the construction calendar. In-river work started on July 1 to match regulations that protect fish spawning periods and keep invasive sea lamprey from getting past the Sixth Street Dam.
So the familiar fall routine at the top of downtown is still running. Experience Grand Rapids reports that the Sixth Street Dam area, Fish Ladder Park and Sixth Street Park are still open to anglers during construction. Fish Ladder Park is a viewing spot. Fishing is not allowed there, but you can watch salmon try to jump the dam or swim up the ladder. Fishing is restricted in parts of the river inside the construction zone, which makes the Sixth Street end the main place to fish downtown this season.
What the river is doing at Sixth Street right now
Mid-October happens to be a good time to stand at the ladder. Jay Wesley, a fisheries biologist and the Michigan DNR's Lake Michigan Basin coordinator, laid out the fall pattern for Experience Grand Rapids:
"The chinooks start running in late September and peak in October. Our chinook run on the Grand River is now much smaller than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, but the fall runs also include steelhead."
He said coho usually peak twice. The first peak is in mid to late September and the second is in the first two weeks of November. The fall steelhead peak usually comes in mid-November. Water temperature is the trigger. In his words, "If temperatures are in the 60s the fish will come upstream."
The most recent field report available is from early October. Werkman Outfitters' Grand River fishing report for October 6 said salmon had started spawning, recent rain had raised water levels, and a small push of steelhead had come in. That report covers the river in general and does not give a count for Sixth Street. For a specific week, the DNR's weekly fishing report is where Wesley points people.
Below the bridges, the new river
Head downstream and the river looks different. Over the summer, crews worked their way downriver, putting up barriers and then placing large boulders between the Sixth Street Bridge and the Blue Bridge, MLive reported in September. The same story says that from the Blue Bridge or nearby Lacks Park, you can see water churning and crashing over the new boulders south of the bridge. MLive also reported two J-hook weirs near the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
The most hands-on work has been around Ah-Nab-Awen Park. In its one-month update, WZZM 13 reported that crews built a cofferdam to manage the flow and were setting four-to-six-foot boulders side by side along the western half of the dam by the park. Matt Chapman, executive director of Grand Rapids WhiteWater, told the station, "They're actually going to be installing a series of three rock drops," and compared the layout to a fish ladder. WZZM also reported that digging out the dam uncovered a large limestone boulder.
This is still the middle of a two-season project. None of the reporting through early fall says any of the four dams has been fully removed. The City's plan has the contractor, Taplin Group, replacing the four dams over two years with two channel-wide elements: a boulder arch, constructed riffles, and scattered habitat boulders. The boulder arch is planned for Dam 2, inside a small cofferdam. The City's project page puts removal of the remaining dams in the 2027 season.
In total, the work covers 2,887 feet and 30 acres of river corridor, with improved habitat for lake sturgeon, river redhorse and snuffbox mussel. MLive has described it as a two-year, $26 million restoration.
Where to stand, and what is fenced off
The bridges work as viewing platforms. The City's Parks and Recreation Department has pointed people to the Blue Bridge, Gillett Bridge and nearby downtown walkways to watch the river change week by week. One stop is closed:
- Fish Ladder Park and Sixth Street Park: open. Salmon viewing at the ladder, fishing allowed at Sixth Street.
- Gillett Bridge: open through this phase, according to the City.
- Ah-Nab-Awen Park: closed from Gillett Bridge to Bridge Street. It is the staging and river-access area for equipment and will stay closed for the whole project.
- Blue Bridge and Lacks Park: the best close views of the new rushing water south of the bridge.
- Grand Rapids Public Museum riverfront: Phase 1 opened in April 2026, with riverfront walkways and trails, an outdoor classroom, hands-on science stations and terracing down to river level.
- Lyon Square: a riverfront plaza between DeVos Place and the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, with a large platform over the river.
Lyon Square is a good place to end after sundown. When it gets dark, the plaza lights up with strings of lights and a large projector plays a nightly art show on the entrance of the historic Civic Auditorium at DeVos Place. It has a snowmelt system, so it stays usable into the colder months. Experience Grand Rapids puts the cost of that project at $12 million.
Why the window is short
Two dates make the coming weeks tighter than they look. The City's event planning guide lists the Riverwalk as unavailable from November 1 through May 1 for safety reasons. The second coho peak usually arrives in the first two weeks of November, after the Riverwalk has already closed, and steelhead peak in mid-November. October is the month when the chinook peak and an open Riverwalk overlap.
The longer window is the construction itself. The City expects the Lower Reach to be finished by the end of 2027, depending on weather and river conditions. The Grand River Network gives a less precise goal of 2027 to 2028. Either way, this fall and next are the two in-between seasons, when the boulders are partly placed and the old dams have not all come out. Experience Grand Rapids writes that the finished project will bring rushing rapids back to Grand Rapids for the first time in more than 100 years.
Chapman called the first day of equipment in the river "an 18-year commitment from multiple community partners to restore the city's namesake rapids," in the City's July 1 announcement. For now, the salmon at Sixth Street and the new white water below the Blue Bridge share the same downtown stretch, and the Riverwalk stays open until November 1.
Tammy brings an engineer's eye and a designer's sense of place to the riverfront. The river work will change downtown Grand Rapids over the next two seasons, and she is following it closely. If you want to talk about what a restored river could mean for the homes and buildings along it, Tammy L Kerr welcomes the conversation. Schedule a personalized consultation.