Council presses county on $430 million Safe & Sound Ellicott City package; officials cite $110 million funding gap

(Editor’s note: council members and staff used the program name “Safe & Sound” to describe a package of seven Ellicott City flood mitigation projects presented to the council.)

County capital staff told the Council that the interconnected Safe & Sound projects — including the extended North Tunnel, Maryland Avenue culvert, Rogers Avenue and other channel and building work on Lower Main Street — together carry a total planning estimate of roughly $430.5 million in current‑dollar terms. Project managers said $226.8 million of program spending is already recorded as spent or encumbered; adding FY26 appropriations and pending allocations would bring total authorized spending to about $320.6 million and leave a funding shortfall near $110 million for the full program.

Project breakdown provided to the council included the following elements (spending/encumbered and total project estimate): Quaker Mill (complete) $3.5 million; H7 (channel/related work) $5.4 million; H4 (in design/construction this year) $7.8 million; North Tunnel $168.6 million encumbered (Kiewit Trail road contract line includes a $141 million construction award); Lot F (a downstream collection basin and ancillary tunnel) estimated $45 million total with $20 million available now; Rogers Avenue drop shaft $13 million; Maryland Avenue culvert estimated at about $59.7 million with around $10 million already encumbered; and smaller project lines including T1 and C3 and lower‑Main building removal/rehab items (project totals listed to council’s slide set).

County staff said the extended North Tunnel remains the program’s largest line item and that, if fully constructed with the current alignment, the main stem — from Papillon Drive to the river — would be funded by current appropriations and the FY26 request, with available grant and state loan sources assigned to that work. The county said it has sufficient appropriation to complete the main stem of the tunnel and the CSX track work required under current assumptions, but the county cautioned officials that removing the remaining items (Lot F, Rogers Avenue, Maryland Avenue full construction and other add‑ons) would require additional funds.

Council members asked whether the tunnel could be built in stages and whether work deferred now would be significantly costlier later. Project staff said demobilization and re‑mobilization of heavy tunneling equipment would increase future costs and that the department would prefer to sequence work to avoid repeating mobilization costs, but acknowledged inflation and market changes would likely raise the price of any future phases.

At the meeting, county staff acknowledged gaps in the council’s earlier access to project‑level funding data but provided the chart of encumbered spending and total planning estimates in response to council requests. Staff said they would provide more detailed fund‑by‑fund breakdowns on request (local appropriations, state bond initiatives, revolving loans and federal potential funds) and run comparative hydraulic models showing the incremental benefit of each major element against the baseline — to show how depth and velocity on Lower Main change with and without each project component.