The East Race, closed for its works

April 2026 — 1 May 2027

The contract and the money: The riverwalk improvement project between Seitz and Howard Parks was funded by the Redevelopment Commission on 26 March 2026 with $5.6 million — four million from the River East Residential TIF and $1.6 million from the River East TIF — and on 14 April 2026 the Board of Public Works approved a $5.2 million construction contract with Larson-Danielson Construction Co. Inc. The closure: The East Race Waterway closed for a full year, possibly starting 18 May 2026 — no dock and no entrance area, the bridge over the East Race being replaced — and the riverwalk from beneath the Jefferson Boulevard Bridge to the Seitz Park entrance is closed until 1 May 2027. The works themselves are documented: a new widened dock, accessible to all; a widened replacement bridge; a repaved parking lot and a new entrance; and the riverwalk rebuilt to fourteen feet of concrete with overhead lighting. The waterway did not operate in the 2026 season. The East Race's record in this history — the 1840s mill race that became, in 1984, the first artificial whitewater course in North America — therefore carries a dated interruption, printed here so the closure reads as a chapter and not an ending: the course is being rebuilt at its banks, and its reopening date in the city's own works schedule is 1 May 2027.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, 22 April 2026 — the Redevelopment Commission's funding of 26 March 2026 ($5.6 million, split between the two River East TIFs) and the Board of Public Works' contract of 14 April 2026 ($5.2 million, Larson-Danielson Construction Co. Inc.).
2. South Bend Tribune, 14 May 2026 — the waterway's full-year closure possibly from 18 May 2026, the riverwalk's closure until 1 May 2027, and the works' contents (dock, bridge, parking lot, entrance, fourteen-foot riverwalk with lighting).