M-139 (Michigan highway)

M-139 begins at a junction with US 12 southwest of Niles in Bertrand Township. The highway travels northeasterly along Chicago Road through farm fields and residential neighborhoods. The trunkline turns north along Lincoln Avenue and then east on Main Street to run into downtown Niles. Main Street crosses the St. Joseph River, and at the intersection with Front Street, M-139 turns north along that street whose name becomes "Old US 31" at the Niles city limit. The highway runs parallel to the river as both exit the downtown area. M-139 turns toward the northwest on the outskirts of town, running through farm fields. The trunkline passes Webster and Long lakes as it crosses mixed forest and residential areas between Niles and Berrien Springs. M-139 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2011 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-139 were the 12,248 vehicles daily between the intersections with Fairland and Deans Hill/Pokagon roads south of Berrien Springs; the lowest counts were the 1,576 vehicles per day in downtown Niles. The only section of M-139 that have been listed on the National Highway System (NHS) is from the interchange with US 31 northward. The NHS is a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. ==History==

M-139 was designated as a state trunkline by 1931 from US 31 at Scottdale to US 12 in Benton Harbor. In late 1953 or early 1954 M-139 was extended westward along US 12 and then northward along Paw Paw Avenue to meet a new bypass routing of US 31 north of Benton Harbor. US 31 was rerouted to follow what is now the I-196 freeway in 1963. At that time, US 31 was then routed along I-94 and M-139 to Scottdale. The following year, the concurrency was removed when M-139 was truncated to end at I-94/US 31. The northern extension on Paw Paw Avenue was turned back to local control, truncating the northern end of M-139 to the intersection with BL I-94 (previously US 12). Plans for M-139 to be extended on a new east-west facility north of downtown Benton Harbor were halted in 1965 when the city and the state disagreed on how best to traverse a railroad; the project had been canceled by February 21, 1966. On August 27, 2003, the St. Joseph Valley Parkway freeway carrying US 31 was completed from northwest of Berrien Springs (exit 15) to Napier Avenue near Benton Harbor (exit 24). The former section of M-139 replaced by US 31 was once again designated M-139, with M-139 extending further along the former US 31 to the freeway's exit 15. In 2008, M-139 was planned to extend southerly to end at Main Street (Business US 12, Bus. US 12) in Niles along the unsigned state trunkline OLD US 31 and Bus. US 31, but after the City of Niles announced its plan to take over maintenance of the section of East Main Street between Front Street/Bus. US 31 and Fifth Street/M-51 in order to ban trucks, the plan was revised to extend M-139 further south, replacing the Bus. US 12 designation southwesterly to US 12. The extension was executed on March 5, 2010, prior to route marker installation. ==Major intersections==

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