A blighted West Baltimore highway that many have dreamed of tearing out is mostly going to stay put. But Baltimore leaders are seeking big money to transform it.

Mayor Brandon Scott and his transportation department have asked the federal government for $100 million to help start the transformation of West Baltimore’s U.S. 40, the so-called Highway to Nowhere, which cuts a nearly 20-block corridor through the city.

It would be part of a $200 million first phase that would build a cap over one block of the highway’s recessed portion and tear down its bridges and ramps over MLK Jr. Boulevard, as well as reconfigure nearby roads and intersections.

Baltimore would put up $40 million and the state’s would pitch in $60 million in other federal funds.

The cap will be designed as a “new civic space” and will connect to a proposed future Red Line light rail station as part of the larger project “geared to stimulate transit-oriented development, improve mobility, and provide a long-sought built connection between legacy divided communities,” wrote Scott in a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as part of the grant application.

Future phases would construct additional caps, Scott continued.

The project would “directly address historic wrongs” stemming from past plans, the application continues.

In the 1960s, officials envisioned extending Interstate 70 east through West Baltimore, connecting it with downtown Baltimore and Interstate 83 and across the harbor to Interstate 95. The project would have boosted mostly white suburbs at the expense of mostly black neighborhoods in the city.

It never happened. Activists blocked plans for the freeway over the Inner Harbor. After that, planners scrapped the idea of extending U.S. 40 as a highway west to I-70.

The damage in West Baltimore, however, was already was done: Less than a mile and a half of roadway was built, destroying 971 homes, 62 businesses, a school and 20 city blocks. It displaced 1,500 residents and broke neighborhoods. It remains a prominent asphalt scar in West Baltimore.

But a new federal grant started under the Biden administration offered a chance at some sort of healing — the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant Program funnels money into projects aimed at reversing the disastrous effects of “urban renewal” that displaced communities for highway construction. Baltimore was awarded $2 million for planning related to the Highway to Nowhere in early 2023 and now is seeking more, though it is competing with many other projects around the country.

The Highway to Nowhere has been part of West Baltimore’s landscape for so long that it doesn’t even manage to be a second thought for Edna Manns-Lake, the president and founder of Fayette Street Outreach, a nonprofit that creates jobs and mentorship opportunities for youths and developed a community center nearby. But Manns-Lake said there’s no denying or ignoring that the highway “destroyed Black neighborhoods.”

She has lived in Southwest Baltimore’s Penrose/Fayette Street Outreach neighborhood off Mulberry Street for more than 60 years. Though she doesn’t do much driving these days, the highway’s still part of her commute when she gets a ride out of the neighborhood.

Capping a portion of the highway “sounds great,” she said, but ultimately she’d like to prioritize attracting businesses and creating jobs for locals. She also thinks any upgrades should be an opportunity for people long divided by the highway to feel a part of something.

”If we could do something to make it more meaningful, that would be better,” Manns-Lake said.

The grant application envisions such a reality.

The area surrounding the highway’s footprint is already zoned for transit-oriented development, and city officials hope that the rebirth of the east-west Red Line light rail, which is proposed to run along the highway, will spur new housing, retail and other development around it.

Planners also believe removing the U.S. 40 ramps over MLK Jr. Boulevard open up even more space for housing and development.

Bree Jones has lived in Baltimore for five years, mostly in the Harlem Park neighborhood where her company, Parity, has redeveloped vacant rowhomes and created affordable homeownership opportunities. Jones admits some of her first thoughts about the highway were that it’s “an odd piece of road and you don’t know what purpose it serves.”

But she did her research and is currently part of advisory groups for the highway and the Red Line.

Jones thinks capping the highway sounds more “practical,” but, overall, steps should be taken to eliminate further harms caused by the highway. For example, elderly people in the area, often legacy residents, should be prepared for the development changes, which may attract an influx of property buyers. That means getting tax assessments locked in and names on deeds, completing deferred maintenance and more.

”We want revitalization, we want beautiful spaces, but we don’t want displacement of legacy residents,” Jones said. “If Baltimore wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of others, we need to start doing preventative work now.”

Jones added that she hopes that any plans for the highway shouldn’t exacerbate traffic or worsen noise and pollution.

Planners appear to be working on that, too. They want to use grant funds to retrofit some roads and intersections to make them safer for pedestrians. That means new lighting, crosswalks, sidewalks and curb ramps; it also could mean using traffic calming measures, such as placing speed cameras or narrowing the driving lanes at intersections.

Initially, the city transportation department will focus on three “major nodes” at the highway’s eastern and western ends as well as near the proposed cap. Future phases would look at other intersections with high crash rates.

A similar project is underway in Philadelphia. Earlier this year, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot awarded $158 million to the Chinatown Stitch, which will construct an expressway cap in the historic neighborhood.

How that project progresses could offer Baltimore some clues for how to build somewhere new for the Highway to Nowhere to go.