Downtown Grand Rapids River Restoration Kicks Off This Summer

A project 17 years in the making will finally get started later this summer in Downtown Grand Rapids.

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On Monday the City of Grand Rapids announced that The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has authorized around $11 million in Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program funding for the Lower Grand River Habitat Restoration Project.

With that money secured, project organizers have now received all major federal and state authorizations and the next step to restoring the rapids can proceed.

The work will be done on the area called the "Lower Reach" which goes from I-196 down to Fulton Street.

Matt Chapman, executive director of Grand Rapids WhiteWater shared with Wood TV what the funds will be going towards.

“We will be using these funds to remove four of the low-head dams that are out in the Grand River today and then bringing rock and boulder that was removed from the river and trying to restore and build natural features to restore the rapids that were once downtown."

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The project will be done in two phases but phase one can't start until July 1 because of sea lamprey and fish migration.

Once that is over Grand Rapids WhiteWater will start to remove four of the low-head dams that are in the Grand River.

After that the plan is to bring back rock and boulders that were removed as well as restore and build natural features to restore the rapids to what the once were.

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For phase 2, officials will need to determine what happens to the Sixth Street Dam because it's an important barrier to the invasive sea lamprey.

I'm so excited to imagine what downtown Grand Rapids once this project is completed.