Portal:Michigan highways/Selected article/October 2016

I-196 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs for 80.594 mi in Michigan. It links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids together. In Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, whose political career began in Grand Rapids. 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 31 just south of Holland, and as an east–west trunkline from this point to its end at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. There are currently three business routes related to the main freeway, two business loops (BL I-196) and one business spur (BS I-196) that serve South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. The current freeway numbered I-196 is the second in the state to bear the number. Originally to be numbered as part of the I-94 corridor in the state, the Benton Harbor–Grand Rapids freeway was given the I-96 number in the 1950s while another Interstate between Muskegon and Grand Rapids was numbered I-196. That I-196 was built in the late 1950s and completed in the early 1960s. The first segment of the current I-196 was opened as I-96 near Benton Harbor in 1962. Michigan officials requested a change in 1963, which reversed the two numbers and the subsequent segments of freeway opened northward to Holland and from Grand Rapids westward under the current number. The gap between Holland and Grandville was filled in the 1970s, completing the highway. (more...)

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