Should Michigan Have More Intrastate Interstate Highways

Currently Michigan is home to 4 mainline interstate highways (I-69, I-75, I-94 and I-96) and several auxiliary routes like I-196 and I-275. But there is one highway that stands out for being an intrastate interstate and that is I-96. The freeway travels between Muskegon and Detroit via Grand Rapids and Lansing. I-96 does not exist in any state except Michigan.

Thanks to Michigan's peninsula-ness, the state's geography is custom made for an intrastate highway. Running east to west there simply is no land for an interstate to connect with.

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So given the geographic limitations of the state, could there ever be another intrastate interstate in Michigan?

Potential Intrastate Highways in Michigan

Likely not in the Upper Peninsula. An Interstate 98 could run westbound from I-75 parallel to either US 2 or M-28 but either path would easily take it out of Michigan and into Wisconsin and beyond.

US 131 running north/south from the Michigan state line to Petoskey is built to freeway standards from Portage to Manton. It does actually carry the hidden interstate number of I-296 through a portion of Grand Rapids, and could get an upgrade to, say, I-67. If the roadway was completed to interstate standards south of Portage around Schoolcraft, Three Rivers, Constantine and White Pigeon to the Indiana Toll Road, a scant 3200 feet from the Michigan State line, it would almost be an intrastate, but would exist in Indiana.

The only other east/west corridor that would hem in an interstate between the lakes like I-96 would be where US 10 runs from Bay City to Ludington. That highway is interstate standard from Bay City through Midland to Farwell near Clare. However, there would be little justification to complete the freeway to the Lake Michigan coast. Nor would there be a need to sign it as a 2-digit interstate. The best a roadway like that could hope for would be an I-X75 designation like I-575 (a number that does exist in the Atlanta area) or I-775 which does not exist anywhere else in the interstate system.

If you're digging intrastate highways, here are the rest of them across the country.