Maryland’s pending list of ambitious transportation projects — the Red Line in Baltimore, a Southern Maryland transit way and a new American Legion Bridge over the Potomac River — faced a brutal financial reality Wednesday: Officials said there’s not enough money to pay for projects already approved.
The state’s transportation trust fund is $2.1 billion short of what’s needed to build the existing $21 billion plan of transportation projects on the books, state officials said. The shortfall does not take into account the priorities of Gov. Wes Moore (D) and his nine-month-old administration, creating uncertainty for the state’s most high-profile plans to bolster its transportation network.
“We’re currently seeing a funding shortfall of more than $2 billion in six years, just to deliver many of the existing projects that we’ve outlined in the past,” Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said Wednesday during a briefing in Annapolis.
