Scarecrow Weekend's 41st run, with more than 120 scarecrows downtown, wraps up at 5 p.m. today, Oct. 11. The river loop is still open. Start at Pottawatomie Park, follow the Jack Kerr Memorial Riverwalk toward downtown, cross the Fox at Illinois Street, head north to Red Gate Road, and come back down the other side.
That loop now has a repair schedule at both ends. The Illinois Street Bridge is due for deck and sidewalk work next year. The Red Gate Road bridge is lined up for a railing project targeted for summer 2027. And in June, the City Council formally decided to keep the stretch of water between the two crossings. The next few weeks are the last fall the loop will be in its current form before crews start at either end.
Crossing | What's planned | Timing | What's been said about use |
|---|---|---|---|
Illinois Street Bridge | Deck patching, curb and sidewalk improvements | 2027 | Engineering contract approved Sept. 21, 2026 |
Red Gate Road bridge | Railings galvanized and reinstalled, or replaced with standard railings | Targeted for summer 2027 | City says the bridge is safe; temporary rails during work |
Red Gate boardwalk and path | Possible repairs to rails and wood | Not scheduled | Forest Preserve survey asked how a closure would affect users |
The dam's pool | City resolution to keep it | Adopted June 2026 | Dam modifications with the state still possible |
Where the loop starts this October
Pottawatomie Park, at 8 North Avenue, connects to the regional Fox River Trail and to the Jack Kerr Memorial Riverwalk. The St. Charles Park District describes the riverwalk as within walking distance of downtown and its restaurants. If you're driving to the park this week, the city's Oct. 9 resurfacing update listed concrete work in the Pottawatomie Park and Marion–Allen area for Oct. 12 through 16. The 2026 program allows for short, intermittent street closures but no long-term ones.
The downtown stretch has a few coffee stops close to the water. Maple Leaf Coffee House sits along the river at 1 Illinois St. Arcedium Coffee Roasters is at 60 Indiana St. Brown Butter Cafe & Bakery, at 311 N. 2nd St., is the better choice if you're starting the loop from the north side of downtown.
North of downtown, the St. Charles Business Alliance's parks and trails guide lists Mt. St. Mary Park, which has a paddle-sport launch, along with Fox River Bluff West and the northbound Fox River Trail. On the east side, the Forest Preserve District of Kane County notes that the Fox River Trail runs through Fox River Bluff East along an old trolley-line right-of-way.
The south end has already been rebuilt once
The Illinois Street Bridge crosses the Fox just south of the Main Street Bridge, where the Fox River Trail meets the path to First Street Plaza. It changed in 2025, when the city added a pedestrian refuge island and dedicated bike lanes on Illinois Street between Riverside Avenue and South First Street. At the time, the city called the bridge a "high-priority location for improvement" and "a key location for people walking along the river to downtown businesses and the First Street Plaza," as the Kane County Chronicle reported.
The plaza at the other end of that path is also new. First Street Plaza was completed in 2025 as a $6.4 million project, and it won the APWA Fox Valley Branch Public Works Project of the Year award in its category. Its walkways connect the downtown restaurants and shops.
The 2025 changes covered how people use the bridge. Next year's job covers the bridge itself. On Sept. 21, the City Council approved a $51,000 contract with Benesch, the Chicago engineering firm that has inspected the city's bridges since 2017 and also handled repairs on the Prairie Street Bridge. The planned work includes deck patching and curb and sidewalk improvements, and the Chronicle reports it is expected next year. The city owns and maintains eight bridges used by both vehicles and pedestrians.
So the south crossing has had a repaired surface layout for about a year and has a repair contract for the structure underneath. The north crossing is a bigger project with fewer decisions made.
The north end is the bigger, less settled job
The Red Gate Road crossing over the Fox was a $31 million project completed in 2011 and 2012. Its pedestrian path continues into the Fox River Bluff Forest Preserve, and the Kane County Chronicle describes it as a popular route for bicyclists, joggers and families. According to the Forest Preserve District, this crossing is how pedestrians and cyclists get from Fox River Bluff West on the west shore to the Fox River Trail on the east side.
The issue is the bridge's custom railings, which city officials have called "unsightly" because of rust. As of the Chronicle's Sept. 13 report, the city was considering two options. One is to remove the existing railings, hot-dip galvanize them off site and reinstall them. The other is to replace them with standard railings. Earlier bids came in at about $1.29 million to rehabilitate the railings and about $1.99 million to replace them. Benesch's $65,000 contract on this project is for engineering: reassessing the options and finding savings. The final construction cost hasn't been set.
The city has a target date and a reason for it. The work is aimed at summer 2027, with temporary rails in place during construction. Staff said they want to avoid working during the school year because of how much traffic the bridge carries. Staff also said the bridge is structurally sound and inspected regularly.
The boardwalk is the less certain piece. The Forest Preserve District of Kane County ran a public survey through Oct. 4 about the Red Gate pedestrian and bicycle bridge. One question asked how a closure of the bridge and boardwalk until repairs would affect you. Common comments mentioned the rusty railings and wood along the path that looks vulnerable to rot. The District said it may use survey comments in an application for state grant money through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program. The city has not said whether the bridge and boardwalk will close for an extended period.
As of today, the Red Gate crossing is open, the city calls it safe, and no closure has been announced. The repair plan for the bridge railings, and possibly for the path beyond them, is now in the city's and the District's hands.
The water between the bridges now has a formal policy
These repairs assume the river stays as it is, and in June the city put that in writing. The Daily Herald reported in August that the Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study had been paused and that its plan to decide on most of the dams in 2025 had passed.
St. Charles didn't wait for the study. A resolution approved in June states the city's intention to keep the impoundment, the pool of water upstream of the dam, and formally ends the city's dam task force. City Administrator Heather McGuire told the paper the resolution doesn't stop the city from working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on changes to the dam, and it doesn't require the dam structure to stay intact. It only commits to keeping the impoundment. She explained why the question is still on the city's agenda:
"Because it is ultimately affecting development along the river. People selling their houses, they want to know what the future holds."
McGuire also said the policy could help St. Charles keep its reputation as a place for recreational river use while it works on river health. The bridges, the riverwalk and the paddle launch at Mt. St. Mary all depend on that pool, and spending on the crossings now follows a written policy instead of an open question.
What's left on the fall calendar along the river
The St. Charles Paddlewheel Riverboats' public schedule lists 50-minute cruises on Saturdays and Sundays in September and October at 12:30, 1:45 and 3 p.m., rain or shine. The lower decks have windows that close in cool weather. The Park District's fall article says cruises continue into October, but neither source lists the final sailing date of the season. Check the schedule before you plan a weekend around it.
Here are three more things to know before the leaves are gone:
- Oct. 20, 4 to 6 p.m. The city is holding a public meeting at City Hall on Riverside Avenue for All. The project's goal is a more pedestrian-oriented Riverside Avenue that still keeps vehicle access and parking, and the preferred concept is being refined from October through December 2026. The 2025 Illinois Street bike lanes start at Riverside Avenue.
- Closure notices. The St. Charles Park District's trails page points to its live feed for closure and construction notices. The current alert in that feed covers the East Side Sports Complex courts and playground through spring 2027, not the riverfront. The City and the Forest Preserve District manage other parts of the loop, and no single feed covers all three agencies.
- The Red Gate survey closed Oct. 4. Any grant application the Forest Preserve District files will be the next public sign of the boardwalk's timeline.
Questions about the river, like what the impoundment resolution means or how bridge work could affect access near a street you're considering, come up when people are deciding where to live in St. Charles. If you'd like to talk through how river projects like these could affect a specific block in St. Charles, Joe Soto can walk you through it at your own pace. Let's Get Started.
