Walking path around Baltimore's Lake Montebello reopens after multi-year repair project

A walking path around Lake Montebello in Northeast Baltimore is now temporarily reopened after a multi-year sinkhole repair project.

The effort to stabilize the aging infrastructure under the reservoir began after a sinkhole opened up in 2022. The walking path will be reopened for the spring and summer before another critical project begins in the fall. 

On Sunday morning, dozens of families were seen enjoying the walking path around the lake once again.

Lake Montebello memories  

Melanie and Matthew Reeds, both Morgan State University graduates, have a lot of old memories at Lake Montebello.

"We were in the band and we would come here for fitness and to run and practice for our performances," said Melanie Reeds, a Northeast Baltimore resident.

But now that college is over and they are married, they're focused on making new memories at the lake with their daughter.

"You know, just being able to be out here and see different people is just a great environment," said Matthew Reeds, a Northeast Baltimore resident.

When the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) announced the walking path around the lake was back open, the Reeds were among the first people to return.

"We are just excited about what is happening here. For the longest time, we were not able to go around the entire lake, and we are just excited to be able to walk the 1.33 miles," Melanie Reeds said.

"A lot of challenges when it came to this project but we were able to get through those challenges and work through them," said Cherod Hicks, a project engineer with DPW.

2020 Flooding + 2022 sinkhole = Big problem to fix

The repair stems from the 2022 sinkhole, but Hicks explained the issues go back even further. 

Severe flooding on Hillen Road in 2020 sparked an investigation into a 65-foot storm drain. 

Investigators found that a portion of the 145-year-old drain collapsed beneath the road.

When the drain collapsed, it exposed an aging infrastructure, including a 108-year-old storm drain. The collapse played a role in causing the sinkhole to expand in November 2022, also causing the ground underneath to shift near the lake.

"We had to do a subsurface geo-technical investigation where we saw and realized from the report there were large voids and those voids were causing the building and the soil to shift significantly," Hicks said. 

DPW officials said while many visit Lake Montebello for recreation, it is still part of the Montebello Filtration Plant, and it plays a role in providing clean drinking water. 

"Some people may have seen large black pipes that were so we wouldn't have any disturbance to the feeder line to over 300,000 households not only in Baltimore City but also Baltimore County," Hicks said. 

To repair the damage, DPW removed about 7,500 dump trucks of soil and installed a new 84-inch water main to continue supplying drinking water for nearby neighborhoods.

 "When we opened up this site, we had to go 75 feet down. We had to build a soil nail wall to protect the workers and the materials that we're going down into the open trench," Hicks said. 

Engineers say the sinkhole project is complete, but security and fencing will stick around to allow the grass to grow back and give crews room to finish stabilizing the ground. 

Lake dredging begins in fall 2025

DPW will begin dredging Lake Montebello in the fall of 2025 to remove built-up sediment and restore the lake to its full capacity. 

The project is expected to take two years and will require that part of the walking loop around the lake be closed, according to DPW. 

The closed section of the path will serve as a staging area for equipment and construction vehicles, and the rest of the loop will remain open for public use.

DPW officials reminded residents that while many visit Lake Montebello for recreation, it is still part of the Montebello Filtration Plant and plays a role in providing clean drinking water to Baltimore. 

The dredging project is necessary to maintain the filtration system and ensure compliance with regulations set by the Maryland Department of the Environment.