Maryland Port to Rebuild Park in Baltimore County

A 16-acre Baltimore County park will be rebuilt with the support of a $500,000 Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port Administration grant. 

The grant will help restore public recreation areas, add walking trails and a boardwalk, and strengthen 2,600 feet of shoreline. Fleming Park, located close to the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, will be restored using sediment dredged from channels leading to the Port.   

The proposed improvements include public recreation areas with open fields, walking trails that will allow visitors to observe birds and other wildlife, and a boardwalk that will provide access to the Patapsco River. The shoreline will be reinforced and strengthened to accommodate rising water levels due to climate change. The project will be developed in four phases. 

The MDOT MPA’s dredging program is needed to keep shipping channels safe and deep enough to accommodate the larger ships entering the port. The Port of Baltimore ranks first in the U.S. for autos and light trucks, roll on/roll off heavy farm and construction machinery, imported sugar and imported gypsum. It ranks 11th among major U.S. ports for cargo handled and ninth nationally for total cargo value.

In 2018, a record 43 million tons of international cargo was handled by the combined state-owned and privately-owned marine terminals at the port. The value of that cargo was also a benchmark: $59.7 billion. Last year the state-owned public terminals handled a record 10.9 million tons of general cargo and more than a million TEUs. The port also handled a record 850,147 cars and light trucks in 2018, the most in the U.S. for the eighth consecutive year.