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The walking loop around Lake Montebello has temporarily reopened after a multi-year sinkhole engineering project by the Baltimore City Department of Public Works.
With the sinkhole project complete, DPW will remove equipment and reopen the full walking loop around Lake Montebello on Saturday. While most of the area will be accessible, some sections will stay fenced off for safety as crews finish stabilizing the ground and to allow new grass to grow. Temporary materials, such as silt fencing, will remain until the grass is fully established later this summer.
This reopening precedes the start of another large-scale project slated for the fall to support ongoing operations at the Montebello Filtration Plant.
The Montebello sinkhole project began in November 2022 after the collapse of a large storm drain exposed the century-old infrastructure, including a 108-inch storm drain and an 84-inch water transmission main. To access and repair the damage, DPW crews removed the equivalent of 7,500 dump trucks of soil.
DPW installed a temporary 48-inch bypass main, ensuring uninterrupted water delivery throughout the work.
“What began as a sinkhole roughly the size of a basketball revealed the urgent need to overhaul century-old infrastructure beneath Lake Montebello,” Public Works Director Khalil Zaied said in a statement. “This spring and summer, we’re taking a short pause before beginning the next phase of work to fortify the Montebello Filtration Plant — one of the most critical assets in our water system. Our top priority is ensuring this vital infrastructure can continue to serve Baltimore for the next 100 years and beyond.”
In late fall 2025, DPW will begin dredging Lake Montebello to remove built-up sediment and restore the lake to its full capacity. This work is expected to take about two years and will require a partial closure of the walking loop, similar to the closure residents experienced during the Montebello project.
For safety purposes, the closed section will serve as a staging area for equipment and construction vehicles, while the rest of the loop will remain open for public use.
The lake is part of the Montebello Filtration Plant and plays a key role in providing clean drinking water to Baltimore residents. The upcoming dredging project is necessary to maintain that system, ensure compliance with Maryland Department of the Environment regulations and improve the lake’s ability to support the plant’s water filtration process, according to DPW.
In early 2025, DPW completed the reinstallation of a new 84-inch water main — a vital piece of infrastructure that supplies drinking water to nearly 300,000 residents in eastern Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
Have a news tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@baltsun.com or on X as @ToddKarpovich.
