Highway ramp closing to make way for MARC parking lot

The Maryland Transit Administration said that starting December 20, 2010 at 9 a.m., the eastbound ramp to U.S. 40 at Smallwood Street would be closed to allow continued demolition of a section of the infamous "Highway to Nowhere." Traffic will be diverted to Mulberry Street for the duration of the project, which is expected to be complete by June 2011. The highway section includes an abandoned bridge abutment, which is being removed to allow expansion of the parking lot for the West Baltimore MARC Station. The project has been under way since September, but work has so far been limited to the north side closer to Franklin Street. As work shifts to the south side, trucks will be staged in the roadway. The ramp will reopen once demolition work is complete. Access to the MARC station parking lots and bus service in the area will be maintained. Signs will alert drivers and pedestrians to the changing traffic patterns. Demolition of the "Highway to Nowhere" will reunite the communities of West Baltimore that have been physically separated since the highway's construction in the early 1970s. The project will also make way for expanded parking at the West Baltimore MARC Station and pedestrian-friendly features such as landscaping and ornamental fencing coordinated with the City of Baltimore's Pulaski Street streetscape project.