Ellicott City, MD
Main Street Structures
Scope/Solutions
Portions of Ellicott City’s historic Main Street flooded during rainstorms in 2016 and 2018. After the 2018 event, Howard County purchased some of the affected buildings, all of which span the Tiber River, and undertook an initiative to mitigate the potential for future damage. Their plans include improving the neighborhood’s stormwater management and removing sections of the county-owned buildings bridging the river. SGH provided structural, waterproofing, and historic preservation engineering services for the multiphase, multi-building project.
For the first phase, completed in 2021, SGH assessed the condition of the affected buildings, helped prepare demolition specifications for four buildings, developed plans for infilling three buildings’ basements, and designed structural alterations for the former Caplan’s Department Store to remove its rear half, which spanned the river.
The second phase includes removing the rear portion of five additional buildings and implementing floodproofing. SGH is designing the structural alterations to remove the rear potion of the buildings, structural strengthening to resist flood loading at some of the buildings, and waterproofing to mitigate the effects of flooding on the historic exterior of the affected buildings.
The entire project is subject to the review and approval of the Howard County Historic Preservation Commission and the Maryland Historical Trust.