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Interstate 196

Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs for 80.6 miles (129.7 km) in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids. In Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or simply the Ford Freeway, after President Gerald Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives for 25 years. This name generally refers only to the section between Holland and Grand Rapids. I-196 changes direction; it is signed as a north–south highway from its southern terminus to the junction with US Highway 31 (US 31) just south of Holland, and as an east–west trunkline from this point to its eastern terminus at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. There are three business routes related to the main freeway. There are two business loops and one business spur that serve South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. Another business spur for Muskegon had been designated relative to the I-196 number.

Route description
Like other state highways in Michigan, I-196 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). In 2011, the department's traffic surveys showed that on average, 77,500 vehicles used the highway daily between Lane Avenue and US 131 in Grand Rapids and 12,778 vehicles did so each day north of the split with US 31 near Holland. These are the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively. As an Interstate Highway, all of I-196 is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. In addition, the highway has been named by the Michigan Legislature the Gerald R. Ford Freeway to honor the 38th President of the United States. The original legislation from 1974 extended that name to the full length of the freeway, but when the various memorial highway names were re-codified in 2001, the name was not applied to the Berrien County segment. From the junction with M-63 north to the split with US 31 except for the section that connects the ends of the South Haven business loop, the freeway is also a part of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour (LMCT), a tourist route that follows Lake Michigan. before curving northeasterly through the interchange with M-40. The freeway crosses into Ottawa County south of the Macatawa River before meeting the other two interchanges for Holland, the second of which is the northern end of the business loop in Zeeland. In Wyoming, the freeway runs along the river, passing Millennium Park on the opposite banks in Walker and Hopewell Indian Mounds Park on the near banks. To the south of the freeway, the business spur for Wyoming and Grand Rapids departs to follow Chicago Drive near an industrial area. After the interchange for Market Avenue, I-196 crosses the Grand River and enters the city of Grand Rapids. The freeway meanders northward past the transmission antennas for radio stations WJRW and WYHA and around the west side of the John Ball Zoological Garden. The trunkline has an interchange with M-45 (Lake Michigan Drive) on the north side of the zoo before I-196 runs downhill turning eastward. At the bottom of the hill, I-196 enters the urban core of Grand Rapids. The freeway runs eastward through residential neighborhoods on the city's west side as it approaches the interchange with US 131. This complex structure is adjacent to the Grand River north of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. The carriageways for I-196 run through the interchange on different levels, with the eastbound traffic carried down near river level and the westbound lanes above the crisscrossing carriageways of US 131's freeway. I-196 crosses the river on the opposite side of the interchange and both directions return to the same level. The freeway picks up an additional lane at this point as the median is replaced by a concrete barrier. As the freeway runs eastward, it passes the area of Grand Rapids known as the "Medical Mile", a district anchored by the Van Andel Institute, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, a campus of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Butterworth Hospital campus of Corewell Health. The Ford Freeway jogs slightly to the northeast as it crosses a line of the Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad between College and Eastern avenues. It then passes to the south of the office buildings that house the Kent County Health Department, the Sheriff's Department and the animal shelter. A little over a mile and a quarter (2.0 km) east of those offices, I-196 meets its parent highway, I-96 on the east side of the city. This interchange marks the eastern terminus of the Ford Freeway and I-196. ==History==
History
Previous designation In the first tentative Interstate numbering plans, the freeways in Michigan now numbered I-96 and I-196 were supposed to be part of the I-94 corridor, and the freeway between Muskegon and Grand Rapids was to be I-94N. Later, the initial approvals by the federal government routed I-96 from Benton Harbor north to Grand Rapids and then east to Detroit, and I-196 was the spur route from Grand Rapids to Muskegon. The first segment of freeway built was a relocated section of US 16 near Coopersville and Marne. The freeway opened at the end of 1957 or in early 1958, and the first markers for I-196 were erected in 1959. Permission for this switch was granted in 1963, and the signs were changed in January 1964. Consideration was also made to name the Grand Rapids–Benton Harbor freeway I-67. The previously completed I-196 was redesignated as an extension of I-96, and the completed freeway segments southwest of Grand Rapids were redesignated I-196; I-67 was rejected by the American Association of State Highway Officials. This section was originally designated as part of I-96/US 31. After the designation switch later in 1963, An additional section of freeway was opened between Grandville through downtown Grand Rapids to meet I-96 at the end of 1964. M-21 was moved to the freeway from its previous surface-street routing. The final link in the freeway was completed in November 1974 along the Holland–Grandville segment, completing I-196 for a second time. At the same time, M-21 was removed from the freeway, truncating that highway designation to end in Grand Rapids. In 2009, access to Jenison was improved by the addition of a partial interchange with Baldwin Street. In 2016, the sections of I-196 that run concurrently with US 31 north of the M-63 interchange, except between the ends of the business loop at South Haven were designated as part of the West Michigan Pike Pure Michigan Byway. ==Exit list==
Exit list
{{MIint|exit ==Business routes==
Business routes
There are currently three business loops (BL I-196) and one business spur (BS I-196) along I-196. A BS I-196 in Muskegon was designated along what is now Bus. US 31 before the Muskegon–Grand Rapids freeway was redesignated I-96. When I-196 was built outside of South Haven in 1963, the former US 31 bypass was redesignated BL I-196. In 1972, the loop was shifted to follow the pre-war routing through downtown. In 2016, all of the business loop was designated as part of the West Michigan Pike Pure Michigan Byway. In 2016, the section of the business loop that runs concurrently with US 31 was designated as part of the West Michigan Pike Pure Michigan Byway. In 1953, the state highway department completed enough of the Grand Rapids beltline to reroute M-21 to it. The former routing of M-21 was then redesignated Bus. M-21. With the completion of I-196 from Holland to Grand Rapids in 1974, the highway was truncated to run between I-196 and US 131 and renamed BS I-196. In December 2017, it was shortened further to end at the Grand Rapids city limits at the intersection between Chicago Drive and Clyde Park Avenue when the remainder of the trunkline along Grandville Avenue and Franklin Street was turned over to local control. Major intersections ==See also==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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