City officials say Baltimore is slowly digging out from a 15-year state funding shortfall that left roads, bridges and traffic signals deteriorating — and they warn another potential drop in transportation funding could stall or even reverse recent progress.
Over the past decade and a half, cuts to Maryland’s Highway User Revenue program have cost Baltimore nearly $1 billion that would have supported road work, according to city budget data. To partially fill the gap, the city relied on transportation bonds between 2014 and 2023 while maintenance needs mounted.
“The backlog is so vast because of that 10-year period where there was no investment,” said Laura Larsen, Baltimore’s budget director, during a briefing to the Planning Commission on Thursday. Officials now face decisions about which projects deliver the most impact as the city tries to chip away at years of deferred maintenance…