The long-awaited City Dock Project broke ground Monday morning, promising flood protection for downtown Annapolis.
The project is slated to add floodgates, raise land to block rising water levels, install a new park and construct a New Maritime Welcome Center.
“We all know the urgency of now,” Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Maryland Democrat, said. “We all know the grave public safety challenges if we don’t address the flooding.”
The flood mitigation project is more than five years in the making and has been a long-standing goal of outgoing Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley. The groundbreaking Monday took place one day before the Annapolis city election to elect Buckley’s successor. Among officials in attendance was U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat.
The project is designed to protect the city from expected flooding events through 2060, according to City Public Works Director Burr Vogel. The project should protect the city from flood waters up to 8.77 feet above the daily average lowest level of the water, he said. That would have protected against the highest water level observed in city history, at 7.2 feet, during Hurricane Isabel in 2003.
The project would not be able to protect against a one-in-1,000-year flood event, Vogel said, but could protect against a one-in-100-year flooding event.
Last year Annapolis experienced about 120 flooding events, the most in the city’s history. Annapolis had possibly the 11th-highest water level in city history on Thursday, the fourth-highest within the last 10 years.
“We saw again last week how urgent the problem downtown flooding has become,” Buckley said. “We cannot wait any longer. The economic and community heart of Annapolis is at risk today.”
The flooding Thursday affected many city businesses, including the hot dog restaurant Pip’s, where 1 foot of water stood outside. Pip’s has its own pump system, but it was not functioning for about an hour because the store’s power went out.
The project is expected to cost about $87 million to complete, according to the city’s fiscal 2026 budget. Funding is set to come partially from a $32 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has not yet been dispersed to the city.
The grant is from the federal agency’s hazard mitigation grant program, as a repayment to Maryland for work done by the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Annapolis waits for funds from FEMA, Buckley said the city is moving forward “responsibly” by adjusting the project’s timeline and “value-engineering design elements” to get the project started.
Other project funding comes from the city, a $10 million state grant, a $2 million Anne Arundel County grant and $3 million from a private donor.
The project is divided into two phases and is expected to take approximately 30 months to complete. The first phase, which will cost about $71 million, will include work on Dock Street from Craig Street to the water, including adding a park that will be 8 feet above where the current parking lot sits, constructing a New Maritime Welcome Center attached to the Burgess House, and adding a series of flood gates.
The park is set to possibly include a stage, splash pad and other additions that have been criticized at public meetings for being expensive and not related to the broader goal of flood mitigation. The park’s raised surface will function as a way to block rising water levels
, and the grass will serve to cool down rainwater before flowing into Ego Alley, officials say.
The second phase, set to begin in November 2026 and cost $15 million, will affect Dock Street between Randall Street and Craig Street as well as around Ego Alley on Compromise Street. The phase is set to include various flood mitigation efforts, including raised sidewalks, deployable flood barriers and a stormwater pump station.
The New Maritime Welcome Center, attached to the Burgess House, will be home to the new harbormaster house and a visitor’s center. The previous harbormaster house on City Dock was demolished earlier this year.
The welcome center is the subject of a lawsuit by Historic Annapolis, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the city’s history, arguing that the city had violated approval procedures. A judge affirmed the city’s decision in September, but Historic Annapolis has since filed an appeal.
Tuesday’s city election is set to determine the trajectory of the City Dock Project. Republican Robert O’Shea has called on the City Council to “pause and reevaluate” the project, arguing that the city should not begin the project without the FEMA grant funds, with pending litigation against the project and with some controversial aspects of the design plan such as a splash pad in the park and the design of the Maritime Welcome Center.
Jared Littmann, the Democrat running for mayor, has said that any attempt to change the project could further delay necessary flood mitigation.
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