The Port of San Francisco and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished a study of the city’s 7.5-mile waterfront and published the Recommended Plan in August 2026. The study’s Federal Register notice ran on 31 July 2026. The plan sets a protection standard for each stretch of shoreline at a cost of $17.8 billion in 2026 dollars. The federal government may pay up to 65 percent of the construction cost if Congress authorizes the work.
For a tour operator the plan carries the routing facts: four reaches, a standard for each, and three areas where drawings come first. It also states that it does not decide the timing and sequencing of construction. A waterfront day has to be built to survive that gap.
KQED reported on 11 August 2026 that the port expects $23 billion in damages over the next century if the work is not built.
Four Reaches, Four Different Days
Reach 1 is Fisherman’s Wharf, from Aquatic Park to Telegraph Hill. The plan places it on higher, more protected ground and proposes floodproofing plus short floodwalls on piers and wharves. Floodwalls often extend up to 3 feet above the ground surface.
Reach 2 is the Embarcadero, from Telegraph Hill to the Bay Bridge, drawn for 3.5 feet of sea level rise. The proposal raises the buildings along the water’s edge, including the Ferry Building and the historic bulkhead buildings, raises the roadway and transitions back to existing city elevation.
Reach 3 is South Beach and Mission Bay, from the Bay Bridge to Potrero Point, at 1.5 feet. It takes berms and levees on both banks of Mission Creek and at Terry Francois Boulevard, short floodwalls on the piers, and closure structures for the bridges.
Reach 4 is Islais Creek and Bayview, from Potrero Point to Heron’s Head Park, at 1.5 feet. It takes seawalls, berms and levees, vegetated berms, coarse beaches, wetland preservation and closure structures at each end of the Illinois Street Bridge. A berm and floodwall defend the Muni facilities on the north side, and a berm on the south side raises the shoreline while keeping public access.
Where the Drawings Come First
KQED reported the port will focus design on three areas: Fisherman’s Wharf, the Embarcadero between Harrison and Townsend streets, and downtown between Broadway and Harrison streets. The Army Corps requires designs for at least 35 percent of the plan before it takes the project up and requests funding from Congress. The Recommended Plan sits at a 20 percent level of design.
Those three areas are the likeliest places for fencing and survey crews. No page publishes a works order for any of them.
Build the Walk So the Promenade Is Optional
The Embarcadero proposal raises the shoreline edge and the roadway and slopes back to existing city elevation to hold the connection to the Bay. The plan places the design of the promenade and the roadway in later project phases. No page dates a closure.
Choose stops that work from the street grid and from the water. Put the alternate stop on the manifest.
Substitutions the Geography Already Offers
South Beach and Mission Bay supply a second waterfront inside the same reach. The berms and levees on both banks of Mission Creek and at Terry Francois Boulevard give a creek-side stop while the bay side is shut.
Rincon Park appears on the Early Resilience Actions list, the areas the plan names for construction start on near-term flood risk. Hold the park as an optional stop and keep a building-based stop beside it.
Fisherman’s Wharf carries floodproofing and short floodwalls on piers and wharves. The plan’s own case for that approach is that it minimizes disruption from construction, especially to public transit and businesses. The reach on the highest ground is the one the plan expects to disturb least.
Nature-Based Stops the Plan Adds
Four of the plan’s 13 actions sit in its nature-based category: living seawall concepts built into new seawalls, coarse beaches and rocky intertidal habitat, vegetated berms and levees, and wetland preservation and enhancement.
The plan also builds up to two-foot walls around pier perimeters. A pier stop keeps its water and gains a step. Note the step in the access brief a coach driver reads.
A Day That Works at High Tide
KQED published photographs of the January 2024 and December 2024 king tides that show water flowing over the sidewalk at Pier 14 on the Embarcadero. The plan’s closure structures address that class of event. At the Illinois Street Bridge the document expects them to operate less than once a year, in anticipation of a large storm or tide event.
Route the waterfront segment through the middle of the day with an indoor block on either side. Confirm each outdoor stop the day before departure. Carry one alternate per outdoor stop.
What the Guest Should Be Told
Three statements hold today. The shoreline has a federal study with a recommended plan and a cost estimate. The protection standards are set by reach. Congress has not authorized the work, and no construction date exists.
The plan leaves four items open: detailed designs for flood defenses, designs for waterfront streets, open spaces and infrastructure, timing and sequencing of construction, and the funding plan. Name those four in the brief.
The schedule ladder runs from plan approval and funding in the 2026 to 2030 band into preconstruction engineering and design and phased construction after that. The plan marks the later band approximate.