The Viking merchant ships sailed all the way up to Immervad and in later times ships continued to use the river port. Gradually, however, the ships grew too large and this resulted in the river not being used anymore. During the 1930s motoring had developed slowly but surely, and Århus had turned into a large town. It was then decided to cover the river over in order to turn it into a wide street or boulevard - the Åboulevarden (the River Boulevard) as it was named - in order to lead the traffic through the centre along this route and down to the new, large harbour.

Fortunately, the Århus Å river also came to benefit from yet another development in the city. In the beginning of the 1990s debates began about the advantages of a car-free city centre, and in this connection the obvious thing was to re-open the river - and two parts of the river were indeed re-opened in 1996 and 1998 respectively.

In 2008 work is in progress of excavating a third part of the river.