A recent federal funding award to fix West Baltimore’s “Highway to Nowhere” will likely have the opposite effect from what city, state and federal officials claim they want.

First and foremost, the plan won’t get rid of what is widely acknowledged to be a tragic debacle – “the terrible highway,” as U.S. Congressman Kweisi Mfume calls it, whose sprawling infrastructure has physically divided working-class Black communities for so long.

Instead, it will potentially make it more difficult to remove the roadway and release the roughly 600-acre footprint it occupies, which is a crucial step needed to redevelop an area that’s been in a state of precipitous decline since a block-wide swath of West Baltimore was leveled in the 1970s to make way for its path.

There are two major objectives in the latest $200 million Phase 1 Plan, of which $85 million in “Reconnecting Communities” funding was announced last month by the Biden administration. (These federal dollars have an uncertain fate under the Donald Trump presidency.)

One aim is to cap the block between Carey and Calhoun streets for a new civic space, retaining but hiding the existing highway below.

The other is to deconstruct two large bridges over Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

• PART 2: Land bridge over a block of the “Highway to Nowhere”? Not feeling it, community leaders say (2/10/24)

Baltimore DOT proposes starting bridge deconstruction in 2027 and finishing in December 2028. Cap construction would not start until in 2029 and be complete at the end of 2030, or nearly six years from now.

Both projects would disrupt the continuity of the unique open space the corridor now offers between downtown and the West Baltimore MARC station.

Constructing a “cap” at Carey and Calhoun would create a tunnel that could effectively prevent any kind of greenway from ever being established inside the corridor’s wide trench.

Likewise, demolition of the bridges at MLK Boulevard would abruptly terminate the corridor at a heavy traffic artery that’s long been considered a physical and symbolic barrier between westside communities and downtown.

Baltimore DOT asserts in its Phase 1 report that the bridge removal “brings immediate progress toward re-knitting West Baltimore to the Central Business District,” but provides no evidence to back up the assertion.

Another stated reason is to open up land “to enable development at Metro West,” the former Social Security Administration complex on Greene Street that is now owned by politically potent Cave Valley Partners.
__________________________________

Exaggerated Claims

Back in 2010, Governor Martin O’Malley implied he was tearing down the Highway to Nowhere when, in fact, he was clearing away two blocks at its western terminus for MARC parking lots. Here is what elected officials are saying about how the latest highway revamp will “heal” West Baltimore:

• “With this major $85 million federal investment, work can begin to reunite West Baltimore, revitalize its neighborhoods and boost opportunity for residents”  – Senator Chris Van Hollen.

• “Now with this historic level of funding, we are able to build on [previous] momentum and produce real change for our most impacted residents.”  – Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.

• “We are keeping our promise to the city”  – U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume.

• “I want to thank Team Maryland and the Biden-Harris Administration for partnering with us to right an historic wrong and ensure no one gets left behind”  – Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

Better Options

As its nickname implies, the “Highway to Nowhere” was never needed once its connection to Interstate 70 and the Beltway through Leakin Park was killed in the 1980s. For this effort, neighborhoods were torn apart and more than 1,500 residents and 62 businesses were pushed out. 

For most of its route, the highway is below grade and has no entrances or exits that serve the adjacent communities of Poppleton, Franklin Square, Harlem Park, Midtown Edmondson and Shipley Hill.

But the twin bridges over MLK Boulevard have served to avoid congestion at a critical point.

The MTA dispatches over 200 buses a day on the highway, and they would encounter major delays at the intersection until a possible replacement by the proposed Red Line, which has undergone chronic delays, death pronouncements and haphazard planning since it was first conceived in 2001.

Meanwhile, the existing corridor has two distinct advantages that would be squandered by the city’s plan.

The current 14 blocks of continuous open space could attract urgently needed development in connection with the new MARC station that Amtrak is committed to building, as part of its $6 billion Frederick Douglass Tunnel project, as the west anchor of the corridor.

The existing six-lane highway can be compressed into two lanes along the south wall of the trench. This would provide sufficient capacity to accommodate existing traffic as well as space for a future Red Line.

Objective: Physically integrating the highway’s smaller right-of-way into the community.

The next step is to selectively demolish the highway’s north retaining wall. This would allow the ditch itself to be reconfigured to become an integral part of the community.

An exciting new topography could be sculpted for the corridor, taking full advantage of its unique traffic-free continuity. The bridges over MLK Boulevard would then be given a whole new purpose.

One of the overpasses could be transformed into Baltimore’s answer to New York City’s wildly successful “High Line,” serving as a landscaped pedestrian and bicycle gateway to and from downtown. The other bridge could be adapted to serve local traffic and access to new development.

On the other end of the corridor, the West Baltimore MARC station should become an economic engine that reverses the corridor’s half century of neglect and disinvestment.

Getting the MARC Station Right

The West Baltimore station is Baltimore’s closest point to Washington, D.C.

It is also the beginning of Amtrak’s four-track, 125-mph configuration that should maximize frequent express service to the nation’s capital as well as extending into rapidly growing northern Virginia. MARC has committed to the electrification of its commuter fleet to match Amtrak’s speed and acceleration capabilities.

The future West Baltimore Station should be for MARC what Penn Station is for Amtrak. Unfortunately, the city and state have allowed Amtrak to design a station that falls totally flat.

Objective: The West Baltimore Station should be for MARC what Penn Station is for Amtrak.

The most egregious problem is that the proposed station does not include a centralized waiting area with direct connections to the northbound and southbound platforms.

Imagine a transportation hub designed with such a fundamental flaw. The station should also be fully integrated with any future Red Line stop, which should become the most important stop on the new line.

Recent sketches show separate stations about two blocks apart, which is unacceptable. The designs must be corrected – no excuses.

A TOD for West Baltimore

One advantage of an improved “union” station is that the trench for the Highway to Nowhere ends three blocks to the east, so that, unlike the Carey-Calhoun cap plan, the trench is not a factor that would impede new development opportunities.

The Maryland Department of Transportation is encouraging transit-oriented development around MARC stations in Odenton and elsewhere on its rail system, but has shied away from West Baltimore in part because of the uncertainties of the city’s planning process.

Fixing Amtrak’s design of the MARC Station and integrating it with attractive TOD opportunities should be top priorities for Mayor Brandon Scott and his transportation department.

Instead, the city has put forward a mundane plan – with a high price tag – to hide a single block of highway and demolish two perfectly functional bridges.

Where many opportunities abound, the approach to West Baltimore once again appears to be “out of sight, out of mind.”

• Gerald Neily was a transportation planner for the Baltimore Department of Planning from 1977 to 1996 and is the author of Baltimore InnerSpace.