M-139 (Michigan highway)

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M-139
Maintained by MDOT
Length: 11.82 mi[1] (19.02 km)
Formed: 1929-09-22[1]
South end: US 31 near Berrien Springs
Major
junctions:		 I-94 near Benton Harbor
North end: BL I-94 near Benton Harbor
Counties: Berrien
Michigan highways
< M-138 M-140 >

M-139 is a state highway route in the U.S. state of Michigan. The route is entirely within Berrien County. It was formed originally as a bypass of the Benton Harbor and St. Joseph area, but now it serves to provide access into the area from a set of bypasses consisting of I-94 and US 31.

Contents

[edit] Route description

M-139 begins at a junction with US 31/St. Joseph Valley Parkway just northwest of Berrien Springs. From there the route travels northwest through Royalton Township to the community of Scottdale where it turns northward at a forking junction with M-63. There is a junction with I-94 at exit 28 and passes the community of Fair Plain and enters the eastern edge of Benton Harbor. Before terminating at Main Street in Benton Harbor, the road splits into paired one-way routings just north of Empire Avenue. Northbound traffic is routed along Martin Luther King Drive while southbound traffic flows on Fair Avenue.

The Michigan Department of Transportation will extend M-139 southerly to Niles along the unsigned state trunkline OLD US 31 and Business US 31 as soon as signage is replaced. [2][1]

[edit] History

M-139 was determined as a state trunkline in 1929 from Scottdale to Benton Harbor, but the first sections were not opened until 1931. In 1964 or 1965, US 31 is rerouted along M-139 from I-94 to Scottdale and M-139 is truncated to I-94. On 2003-08-27, the US 31 freeway was completed from Berrien Springs to Napier Ave. near Benton Harbor. The former section of M-139 replaced by US 31 is once again designated M-139. According to Marc Fannin on the Michigan Highways site:

“ Along the portion of M-139 from I-94 southerly to Scottdale which was superseded by the US-31 designation for nearly forty years (c.1964-2003), the physical street name for the addresses for the homes and businesses along that stretch of roadway remained "M-139" even though the route number was US-31 all those years![1] ”

[edit] Major intersections

County Location Mile[3] Roads Notes
Berrien Berrien Springs 0.00 US 31 Southern terminus
Scottdale 6.49 M-63  
Fair Plain 8.36 I-94 Exit 28
Benton Harbor 11.82 I-94, Main Street Northern terminus
Legend
Crossing, no access Concurrency terminus Deleted Unconstructed Closed

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Bessert, Christopher J. (2006-10-22). Michigan Highways: Highways 120 through 139. Michigan Highways. Retrieved on 2006-11-23.
  2. ^ Minutes of the January 22, 2008 meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Niles/Buchanan/Cass Area Transportation Study, Southwest Michigan Planning Commission Metropolitan planning organization.
  3. ^ MiGDL - Center for Geographic Information - Geographic Data Library. Michigan Department of Information Technology (May 2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-09.