Business Loop Interstate 94 (
BL I-94) is a
state trunkline highway serving as a
business loop from
I-94 through downtown
Battle Creek. The highway begins at exit 92 on I-94 near the
Kalamazoo–
Calhoun county line. BL I-94
runs concurrently along
M-37 northwesterly from the freeway on the two-lane Columbia Avenue on the eastern edge of
Fort Custer. At an intersection south of
W. K. Kellogg Airport, BL I-94/M-37 turns easterly to run on the southern side of the airport. At the airport's southeaster corner, the business loop intersects
M-96 and turns northward, merging onto M-96. BL I-94/M-37/M-96 follows Helmer Road on the eastern edge of the airport to Dickman Road. At Dickman Road, M-37 turns westerly and BL I-94 turns easterly on a road that is four lanes wide with a
center turn lane. From there, the business loop follows West Dickman Road along a four-lane
divided highway (except between 24th and 20th streets) through a residential area on the northern side of Battle Creek. Dickman Road turns southeasterly as a five-lane undivided highway through downtown Battle Creek, parallel to a curve in the
Kalamazoo River near its confluence with the
Battle Creek River. BL I-94 skirts the edge of downtown by turning southward and then eastward to cross the Kalamazoo River. On the eastern side of the river, the business loop intersects
I-194/
M-66. East of the freeway interchange, Dickman Road narrows to three lanes and ends at Main Street. BL I-94 turns northwesterly along Main Street, northeasterly along Hamblin Avenue and then southeasterly on Michigan Avenue on the eastern side of downtown. BL I-94 follows the three-lane Michigan Avenue, narrowing to two lanes east of Porter Street. BL I-94 rejoins M-96 at an intersection with Columbia Avenue in
Emmett Township near the Kalamazoo River. BL I-94/M-96 (Michigan Avenue) runs concurrently as a three-lane roadway through Emmett Township. The center turn lane drops southeast of Wattles Road, and the business loop continues to its eastern terminus at exit 104 on I-94. In late 1940, a southerly bypass of downtown Battle Creek opened.
US 12 was rerouted out of downtown to follow Columbia Avenue. The former route was redesignated
Business US Highway 12 (
Bus. US 12). In 1958 or 1959, a section of the route of Bus. US 12 was split onto a
one-way pairing of streets through downtown Battle Creek. Later the next year, this business loop was redesignated BL I-94. When the first segment of I-194 opened in 1961, BL I-94/M-78 was rerouted to follow the freeway. In 1964, the western end of the business loop was realigned to follow Dickman Road west to Fort Custer and south along Skyline Drive to I-94. The next year, as I-194 was completed and M-78 was replaced by an extended M-66, BL I-94 was rerouted through the downtown area. From Dickman Road, BL I-94 followed I-194/M-66 north to the end of the freeway at Hamblin Avenue and turned along Hamblin Avenue to Michigan Avenue via Jay Street. A minor realignment in 1970 shifted the connection between Hamblin and Michigan avenues. The one-way setup through downtown was removed in 1984. M-96 and M-37 were extended in 2000, running concurrently between Skyline Drive and the Helmer Road intersections. M-89 replaced part of M-37 but did not follow the latter's routing to I-194/M-66 near downtown. Then in 2008, BL I-94 was removed from the northern segment of I-194/M-66 freeway and rerouted to follow Dickman Road to Main Street back to Hamblin Avenue. To expand the blast radius for ammunitions testing at Fort Custer, MDOT rerouted the business loop and M-37 to run along the southern and eastern edges of the airport instead of following roads on the opposite sides. This change was completed in 2015.
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