The Riverwalk Gap Closing This Fall, and the One That Isn't

Stand on the Moser Covered Bridge and look south toward Washington Street, and for most of this year you'd have seen orange fencing, a backhoe, and a triangular lot that used to hold a strip building next to the Burger King. That lot sat empty for over a decade. By the end of October, it won't be empty anymore.

The 430 S. Washington St. property, owned by North Central College, is becoming North Central College Riverwalk Park, and it closes one of the last real gaps in the Naperville Riverwalk. Crews broke ground the week of May 25, and the city expects the park open to the public by October 30, weather permitting. That's the piece of news most people walking the Riverwalk this fall will notice first. It's not the whole story.

What's Actually Opening

The city, North Central College, and the Naperville Park District have been working toward this since a 2015 agreement between the college and the city, folded more recently into the college's 2024 Master Land Use Plan and the city's Riverwalk 2031 Master Plan, the roadmap adopted in 2020 to guide improvements through Naperville's bicentennial. The project sat behind the Washington Street Bridge replacement for years, deliberately deprioritized so the bridge would be finished before work on the park began. That bridge opened to full traffic last summer, which cleared the way.

Baumgartner Construction won the contract with the low bid among five submissions, just over $2 million, about half a million under the city's budget. The full project cost lands at $2.1 million, with $1.3 million coming from a state grant and the rest from the city's Capital Project Fund.

When it opens, the park will include:

• A barrier-free, ADA-accessible path and ramp connecting the river level to street level
• Benches and seat walls along the low-flow walkway
• Native plantings and lighting
• A plaza highlighting milestones in North Central College's history
• An illuminated archway sign marking the entrance to the college's campus from Washington Street

Andy Hynes, the city's Deputy Director of Transportation, Engineering and Development, described the function in plain terms: it extends the low-flow walkway from the Washington Street Bridge to the Moser Covered Bridge, closing a stretch that pedestrians previously had to detour around. From Fredenhagen Park, the route will carry walkers across the bridge, through the new park, and toward Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in time for late fall sports, including North Central's Homecoming game.

The Project Everyone Assumed Was Keeping Pace

Here's what most residents don't know yet, because it only became public this week.

The North Central College park was always framed alongside a second, larger piece: the South Gateway extension, which would carry the Riverwalk from its current southern endpoint at Hillside Road down to Martin Avenue, connecting to Endeavor Health Edward Hospital. City engineer Andy Hynes has talked about both projects as a pair since early this year, telling NCTV17 in June that residents would "soon be able to walk along this scenic section of the river with a new connection between the Edward Hospital campus and downtown Naperville."

That connection isn't happening this year, at least not as originally scoped.

At this week's 2027 budget workshop, reported by the Daily Herald on September 23, city staff disclosed that costs for the Hillside-to-Martin extension, along with a new plaza planned for the northwest corner of the river and Hillside Road, now run about $1 million more than what the city budgeted for 2026. Naperville's Deputy Finance Director, Traci Marrocco, tied part of the citywide budget increase directly to this project, alongside the North Aurora Road work and the Municipal Center parking deck. City Engineer Hynes told the council he expects a clearer picture of a scaled-back version after the next Riverwalk Commission meeting. Council members are scheduled to sign off on the final 2027 budget in December, after workshop sessions on October 27 and November 10.

None of this makes the South Gateway dead. It does mean the project that residents have heard framed as the natural next step after the North Central College park now has an uncertain start date and a smaller likely footprint than the 1.8-acre segment originally envisioned.

Two Projects, Side by Side

This Isn't the First Time One Piece Finished While Another Slipped

The Riverwalk 2031 Master Plan has been rolling out in phases for years, and the pattern of one segment finishing while a neighboring one stalls isn't new. The Eagle Street Gateway, on the north side of the river, went through its own delays before its grand opening on November 14, 2025. That project cost about $3.5 million, most of it city funded, with a $900,000 federal grant secured by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster covering part of the gap. Its main upgrade added a ramp so pedestrians using mobility devices no longer had to retrace a 1,000-foot dead-end walkway to reach street level, a fix that Riverwalk Commission chair Jan Erickson said had been discussed since 2008, when a resident named Cheryl Hoyer first raised it on behalf of her wheelchair-using daughter.

That history matters here because it shows the Riverwalk 2031 timeline has never moved as one unit. Segments get funded, staffed, and built on their own schedules, shaped by state grants, private gifts, and whatever else is competing for space in a given year's Capital Project Fund. The North Central College park cleared its funding and construction hurdles cleanly this year. The South Gateway has not, at least not yet.

What This Means for Your Walk This Fall

If you live near downtown and use the Riverwalk as a daily route, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Starting late October, you'll be able to walk continuously from Fredenhagen Park across the Moser Covered Bridge, through the new park, and up to Washington Street without detouring around the old vacant lot. That's a real, immediate improvement to a stretch that's been broken for over a decade.

What you won't get this year is a finished walking connection from Hillside Road down to Martin Avenue and the Edward Hospital campus. That piece is still working through a scaled-back redesign, still waiting on a construction contract, and still subject to a City Council vote in December. The Riverwalk Commission's next scheduled discussion should clarify what the smaller version looks like, but there's no firm timeline yet for when it breaks ground.

The North Central College park closes a gap that's frustrated Riverwalk regulars since the old building came down. The other half of the plan, the piece that would have tied the whole southern stretch together, is going to take longer than the city originally hoped.

Sandy Hunter tracks changes like this along the Riverwalk corridor because they shape how downtown Naperville actually lives day to day, not just how it shows up on a map. If you're weighing what a home near this stretch of the river is worth once both pieces are finally in place, Sandy Hunter Homes can walk you through it.