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Michigan's Freeway system.


MJLO

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if you look at a map, i - 196 should end where US31 and itself converge. US 31 should go down to 94, and they should finish the connector making it official. That would make sense. if you ask me i-196 should be US 131, they should complete the 131 all the way to the 80/90 turnpike, and when they finish it they should name it I-67 then finish it up to 75 before the bridge, make a connector freeway loop around Traverse city and be done with it. If they wanted they could Connect US10 accross the state over to 31 but that might be overkill, but a hell of alot more convienient.

Also wolverine, 131 and 31 don't touch man, they consistently stay 30 miles or more apart from each other all the way up the coast so 31 is not 131's parent route, and 275, starts on 75 just north of Monroe.

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Michigan was once planned to be covered with many more freeways than currently here. As the pioneer of the use of highways we have a lot of visions that never made it to reality, a lot of experiments that didn't work or that we didn't have the money or will to complete (i.e. 75 through Detroit's Eastside, Davison Expressway...) Most were in the Detroit area, though.

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Oops, my bad on 275, like I said I was thinking off the top of my head haha. I still wonder if there is right-away for that freeway to travel beyond I-696.

Are you sure about 131 and 31 though? I swear 131 comes off 31 up in Petoskey, I'll have to check out a map

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Oops, my bad on 275, like I said I was thinking off the top of my head haha. I still wonder if there is right-away for that freeway to travel beyond I-696.

Are you sure about 131 and 31 though? I swear 131 comes off 31 up in Petoskey, I'll have to check out a map

You are correct.At Petosky they both run off the same intersection. Very confusing.

by the bay, do you by chance own the By The bay store in TC?

No connection with the store in TC. My summer home overlooks the bay in TC. Thats where "By The Bay" comes into play.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just hate how MI has many unfinished portions of freeway 131 south to 80/90 espeacially, but also 27 N of Lan, 31 E of Benton Harbor, 31 Holland to GH, 127 S of Jackson and 275 NW of Det

also there is a needed freeway bypass around TC and/or an extension or connection of 131 from Manton

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Back to the toll discussion, i hope Michigan remains to be a toll-free state!

While tolls do cover maintienence and operating costs of the highway, it should be avoided at all costs, especially on an existening highway. New freeways being built as toll facilities should avoid what New York state did. Michigan's gas tax is 19 cents for gas/15 cents for diesal so raising the tax 5 cents to pay for needed future highway construction & fund public transportation would be the way to go.

Stated below is from Wikipedia

In 1997, the construction bond used to build the Thruway had been paid off, and all tolls along the Thruway were supposed to be abolished. However, the New York State Legislature voted to maintain the tolls. This action has engendered regional hostility within the state, particularly from the upstate counties which see the maintenance of the toll as a regional-based tax and that the tolls help maintain the economic disparity between the poor, rural upstate and the rich, urban downstate.

The earliest portions of the NY State Thruway were built in the 1950s

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Instead of having a US31 and US 131 why didn't we call them US 31 and US32. It seems confusing. Anther example is I196 and I96. I 96 goes from Detroit to Muskegon. Suddenly you see a sign in GR that says I196 West. Why not call it I95 and have it end in Holland.

That's about the funniest thing I've read in a while. At the end of a somewhat lackluster weekend, I really needed that laugh today.

To address the question of US-31 and US-131 never meeting, here is an excerpt from Chris Bessert's excellent website michiganhighways.org, which I encourage everyone here to check out (especially if you think that a spur of I-96 should be I-95....):

"Until the debut of the U.S. Highway system, M-13 is a major route up the western side of the Lower Peninsula, running from Indiana northerly via Three Rivers, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Big Rapids, Cadillac, Kalkaska and Petoskey, terminating in downtown Harbor Springs. When the U.S. Highway system is laid out, all of M-13 from the Indiana line northerly to a point between Fife Lake and Kingsley in southeastern Grand Traverse Co (cnr present-day M-113, Keffer Rd & Van's Ln) is designated as US-131. A short segment of unbuilt trunkline from the northern end of US-131 west of Fife Lake to US-31 at the southern tip of the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay is proposed to complete the connection of US-131 back to its "parent route," US-31."

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I am glad that there is no toll road in Michigan. The State would probably just lease it to some private concern anyway and I do not think that is the best way to go. The Indiana tollroad lease will be finalized shortly and the State of Indiana will not see a penny from tolls or concessions for 75 years. Maybe some people think that a lease is a good move but I do not.

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I am going to be way out in left field and given the history of our state, I doubt it would never happen, but I would like to see many if not all of the major freeways converted to high speed rail lines. Here is how I think it would work.

Raise yet adjust the Gas Tax and make all gas in the US a flat $4.00 per gallon and put a cap at least $1.50 of that be tax. Then instead of the tax going for freeway construction and repair, put it into switching the freeways into high speed rail roads connecting larger cities.

What you would see happen is sprawl would come to a noticeable halt, people would drive a lot less on the freeway, public transportation in cities and towns would boom, gas would get to a point that the tax is not needed anymore and the price of gas will be extremely low, alternative fuels would be popular, and the regular state and county road system would be completely unaffected.

Oh and a high speed rail line can move more people in less time using less space.

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I like the idea, unfortunatly it will never happen. I think a high speed rail line connecting Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Detroit along i96 is what I want to see. I would even like to see it non stop, just one stop in each city and then from there have each city's public transportation handle the rest. Imagine how quick of a trip that would be. I think it would quickly boast each city's economy and promote more mass transit within city limits.

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I like the idea, unfortunatly it will never happen. I think a high speed rail line connecting Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Detroit along i96 is what I want to see. I would even like to see it non stop, just one stop in each city and then from there have each city's public transportation handle the rest. Imagine how quick of a trip that would be. I think it would quickly boast each city's economy and promote more mass transit within city limits.

Just imagine all the Tiger's games I would goto, knowing that it didn't include 4 hours of driving round-trip. I too would appreciate that sort of implementation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like the idea, unfortunatly it will never happen. I think a high speed rail line connecting Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Detroit along i96 is what I want to see. I would even like to see it non stop, just one stop in each city and then from there have each city's public transportation handle the rest. Imagine how quick of a trip that would be. I think it would quickly boast each city's economy and promote more mass transit within city limits.

i think this would be a sure-fire idea to slow down suburban sprawl along I-96. cascade and ada keep pushing further and further east of grand rapids, and im sure there is just as much sprawl in the ann arbor area. unfortunatly, i think there is too much improvements that need to be done on inner-city freeways in detroit and grand rapids before there will be any money to be spent on a mass transit line. we can only hope, i guess.

by the way, does anyone know the difference between interstates and u.s. highways?

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i

by the way, does anyone know the difference between interstates and u.s. highways?

Interstates are those routes specifically designated in the 1956 Interstate Highway Act.

US Highways are part of an older national system that was started by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1925.

Routes funded under the 1956 act had to be limited-access type freeways. Routes funded under the 1925 act had no such requirement, though some US routes have been upgraded to limited-access freeways as individual states see fit.

Some US routes that do not overlap with the Interstates were retained, but most of the original US routes were made obsolete when the Intersates were built. A prime example would be the old US-16 route from Detroit to Lansing to Grand Rapids to Muskegon. US-16 was dropped from the system when I-96 was constructed.

I think Michigan has a higher than normal number of US routes remaining because we only have 1 north-south interstate. US 31, US 131, US 27, and US 23 were all upgraded to make up for our lack of north-south interstate system routes.

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Also, I was very young and vaguely remember the old draw bridge that use to carry I-75 over the Saginaw River. I can't imagine sitting in so much traffic for so long. There is no way I-75 would properly function without the Zilwaukee Bridge in present-day.

2006_0603BriMelWedd_June29_060002.jpg

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This is a little off-topic, but I guess this thread could present more than one topic.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone thinks that the M6 highway (SouthBeltline) would ever be expanded further west, and then north, eventually connecting to I-96, as kind of a west by-pass for U.S. 131, and also serving traffic to the Allendale/Mid Ottawa County croud...

map.jpg

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This is a little off-topic, but I guess this thread could present more than one topic.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone thinks that the M6 highway (SouthBeltline) would ever be expanded further west, and then north, eventually connecting to I-96, as kind of a west by-pass for U.S. 131, and also serving traffic to the Allendale/Mid Ottawa County croud...

map.jpg

I thought about that before but I don't think there is much of a need right now, M11 (wilson) is not that busy and traffic from the east heading to 96 west can go up 131

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This is a little off-topic, but I guess this thread could present more than one topic.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone thinks that the M6 highway (SouthBeltline) would ever be expanded further west, and then north, eventually connecting to I-96, as kind of a west by-pass for U.S. 131, and also serving traffic to the Allendale/Mid Ottawa County croud...

Sure, it you like more endless sprawl in GR.

On the topic of I-75 and Zilwaukee, does anyone remember when they were building the Zilwaukee Bridge, starting at each end, and the middle didn't line up due to engineering problems? I think it was off by quite a few feet, and had to be rebuilt.

There's more info HERE.

BTW: Nice looking cloud formation you caught there Michi!

2006_0603BriMelWedd_June29_060005.jpg

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Sure, it you like more endless sprawl in GR.

well i know there is a lot of development going on right now in allendale, so i was figuring when the demand gets up there that it might happen. but you are right. if you build it, they will come, and we have seen that thus far with the south beltline

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Actually GRDad, the bridge was lined up perfectly. Unfortunately, hot weather caused the sections to expand, crushing the expansion joints, which then knocked two piers out of plumb destroying the foundations of those, following by one of the bridge sections sagging 11 feet below where it was supposed to be. I remember when I was young seeing the bridge unfinished for a few years while the state decided whether it should be torn down, left abandoned, or finished. The way it was built was widely debated during that time. Obviouisly it was finished, but the bridge has a track record of problems. But for now, it serves us well.

I met one of the engineers working on the bridge, and he still believes it should have never been built in the first place. The other proposal was to have improved I-675 and directed traffic around the lifting bridge when things got tied up.

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on the subject of Wilson not being that busy, I disagree very much, I'm not in town right now, but aren't they widening it from 28th up thru lake michigan dr.? Wilson is not only packed full of cars for a two lane rd. It's also one of the deadliest on that stretch, in Kent County.

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