U.S. Route 223

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U.S. Route 223

Length:

47.20 mi^[1] (75.96 km)

Formed:

1930^[1]

South end:

Sylvania, OH

North end:

US 127 in northwestern Lenawee County, MI

United States Numbered Highways
U.S. Routes - Bannered - Divided - Replaced

U.S. Route 223 is a short, diagonal (northwest to southeast) highway lying in Michigan and Ohio, though the Ohio section is completely concurrent with US 23. It connects US 127 to and from the north (Jackson, Michigan) and US 23 to and from the south (Toledo, Ohio). Although its signed destinations are Jackson, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio, it never reached Jackson, instead feeding into U.S. Highway 127 to and from the north; it no longer reaches Toledo, Ohio, instead feeding the freeway system of greater Toledo through U.S. Highway 23, itself a freeway.

A business route is now the designation for the old US 223, some of it coinciding with Michigan State Highway 52, through Adrian after a bypass was built on the south and west sides of Adrian, but the bypass is largely a two-lane undivided route unsuited to any improvement to Interstate standards; this bypass is designated US 223.

Proposals for aligning an Interstate 73 freeway parallel to all or part of US 223 led to strong political resistance that caused the Michigan Department of Transportation to abandon any plans for improvement, even though the section east of Adrian is a substandard highway for the traffic that it carries with the hazard of an oblique railroad grade crossing.

In 1977 Michigan realigned a segment of this highway so that it would intersect U.S. Highway 23 at a more northerly interchange north of the Michigan-Ohio state line, and thus a concurrency with US 23 was added. Ohio soon decommissioned the old road south of the concurrency in favor of State Route 51, an extension of an existing route.

Throughout its remaining course, except for the US 23 concurrency, it is a surface road except for a short segment of divided highway at the intersection of US 223 and Business US 223 north and west of Adrian.

Historical Note: US-223 was originally part of US-127.