M-6 (Michigan highway)

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M-6

M-6, or Paul B. Henry Freeway, is a 20 mile (32 km) long freeway serving the southern portions of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Many locals still refer to it by its original designation South Beltline.

Contents

1 Description

1.1 Western Terminus
1.2 Junctions
1.3 Eastern Terminus

2 Notes and Trivia

2.1 Construction facts

3 Earlier M-6 designations
4 External links

Description

The highway connects Interstate 96 on the east with Interstate 196 in the west along a corridor running through the south side of Grand Rapids. Contruction on the highway began in November 1997 and was scheduled to be completed in 2008. The first phase, stretching five miles from I-96 to M-37 opened to traffic on November 21, 2001, six months ahead of schedule. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on November 17, 2004 to open the remaining freeway, completed four years ahead of schedule. The completed highway runs approximately 20 miles.

It runs through the following townships:

Western Terminus

Interstate 196 Exit 64 east of Hudsonville, Michigan in Georgetown Township, Michigan.

Junctions

(only the western terminus and exit 1 are in Ottawa County. The rest are in Kent County)

Exit 1: 8th Avenue
Exit 3: Wilson Avenue
Exit 5: Byron Center Avenue
Exit 8: US-131 south of Wyoming, Michigan
Exit 11: Kalamazoo Avenue in Gaines Township
Exit 15: Broadmoor Avenue (also known as M-37)

Eastern Terminus

Interstate 96 Exit 46 near Cascade, Michigan at the Thornapple River, Michigan.

Notes and Trivia

While under construction the highway was referred to as the Grand Rapids South Beltline or simply the South Beltline Freeway. On June 2, 1998, the Michigan Legislature voted to name it the Paul B. Henry Freeway after Paul B. Henry, a popular politician from West Michigan who died in 1993.
Although M-6 is numbered as a Michigan state highway, the freeway was constructed to full Interstate standards.
Hence, there is some speculation that the highway may be re-designated as Interstate 296. However I-296 is actually already internally assigned as an unsigned 3.4 mile segment of US-131 between I-96 to I-196. Further dampening this possiblity is the fact that the Michigan Department of Transportation has a long history of constructing and maintaining freeways outside of the Interstate highway system.
The highway was completely planned and constructed using the metric system, a first in the State of Michigan.

Construction facts

17,350,000 pounds of structural steel were used in the construction of M6-equal to the weight of 30 Empire State Buildings.
682,400 feet of piling were used. If laid end to end, they would stretch 129 miles from Grand Rapids to Traverse City.
The bridges required 124,300 cubic yards (95,000 m³) of concrete-enough to build a column 3 feet in diameter to a height of 90 miles.
10,220,000 cubic yards (7,800,000 m³) of dirt were excavated. This would fill Michigan Stadium 40 times.
225 acres of wetlands were created-the size of two 18 hole golf courses.
8,000 tons of steel were used in bridge construction-equivalent to the weight of 266 railroad freight cars loaded with steel.

Earlier M-6 designations

The first appearance of M-6 was in 1926 as a two-mile road in Keweenaw County running from U.S. Highway 41 at Phoenix to north to Eagle River. In 1938, the route was redesignated as M-111 and was again redesignated 2 years later to become a part of the route of M-26.

In the 1970s, M-6 was the designation for the service roads built during the second phase of construction of the I-696/Walter P. Reuther Freeway in southern Macomb and southeast Oakland counties, from the junction with I-75 east to I-94. The signage for M-6 was removed upon completion of that segment of I-696 in 1979. The service drives are now named 10 Mile Road in Oakland County and 11 Mile Road in Macomb County.

External links

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