The Maryland Transit Administration plans to begin demolition this fall of part of the infamous "Highway to Nowhere" in West Baltimore as part of a plan to expand the parking lot at the West Baltimore MARC station.

The demolition will be paid for with $3 million in federal stimulus dollars. Henry Kay, deputy administrator of the MTA, said that once the site at  Payson and Pulaski streets is cleared, the agency will use $6-7 million in funds earmarked under the expiring federal transportation bill to pay to construct the new lot.

 For the MTA, the project is one piece of a larger plan for transit-oriented development at the West Baltimore station, which is expected to become a more important transportation hub with the eventual constuction of the Red Line.

For the city, it ties in with the Dixon administration's plans to reclaim the area just west of downtown that has been scarred by the Highway to Nowhere -- an unfinished section of what was to be ann extension of Interstate 70 into the city. It is now designated as part of U.S. 40.