Time, dollars and a lot of community effort will be showing remarkable, national-attention results on our Grand River, which flows through the heart of our city. 

The brain-child of city planning and the local venturesome for more than two decades, an exciting and game-changing project is coming to fruition, breathing life and even more vitality into our amazing local.  Construction on the river, I96 to Fulton will have profound beneficial effects on our city’s economic, cultural, educational, social and environmental waterfront community.

Project goals: 

• Restore the rapids to the Grand River for everyone.
• Improve habitat and connectivity, water quality and riparian function.
• Create economic opportunities, enhance underserved communities and instill stewardship ethic.

Phase 1 will see the removal of four smaller dams and the importing of rocks and boulders to improve habitat and enhance recreational opportunities.  The permitting processes through both the state and the federal governments will take all of 2019 to finalize.  The projected “start” for this major undertaking will be spring, 2020.
Phase 2 will be the installation of an AHS – Adjustable Hydraulic Structure:  Its purpose is to provide recreation, fish passage, sea lamprey and flood control.  The U.S. Army Crops of Engineers will be constructing this $19.5 million-dollar structure.
Phase 3 will include the removal of the Sixth Street Dam, which in turn will enhance recreational opportunities, restructure the river channel (to increase habitat and improved fish passage) and the existing Fish Ladder is proposed to remain.
This major undertaking will begin in earnest in summer, 2020, with all stages scheduled to be completed by 2025.

FACT:  “Rapids make up only one percent of the rivers in the lower Michigan peninsula.  Most of the rapids that did once exist have been flooded by dams, erased by dredging or severely degraded.  Restoring the rapids in Grand Rapids is a RARE, unique site-specific opportunity”.