| Interstate 696 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walter P. Reuther Freeway | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by MDOT | ||||
| Length: | 28.368 mi[1] (45.654 km) | |||
| Existed: | 1962 – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end: | I-96 / I-275 / M-5 in Farmington Hills | |||
| US 24 / M-10 in Southfield M-1 in Royal Oak/Hazel Park I-75 in Royal Oak M-53 in Center Line M-97 in Warren M-3 in Roseville |
||||
| East end: | I-94 in St. Clair Shores | |||
| Location | ||||
| Counties: | Oakland, Macomb | |||
| Highway system | ||||
|
Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System Michigan State Trunkline Highway System
|
||||
Interstate 696 (I-696) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway entirely within the US state of Michigan. I-696 is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway, named for the prominent auto industry union head, Walter P. Reuther. I-696 is a bypass route, partially circling the city of Detroit, but traveling entirely through Detroit's northern suburbs. It starts by branching off of I-96 and I-275 at the west end and ends by merging into I-94 on the east end. It has six to eight lanes for most of its length and is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Detroit. It is a major morning and evening commute route, bringing many people living west of Detroit into the suburbs north of the city and into downtown Detroit via other Michigan highways such as M-10 (the John C. Lodge Freeway) and M-39 (the Southfield Freeway). Some local residents affectionately call this freeway "The Autobahn of Detroit."[2]
Contents |
I-696 is part of the original Interstate Highway System as outlined in 1956-58. The first portion built was the western third of the completed freeway, from the western junction with I-96 in Novi east to the Lodge Freeway in Southfield, which opened in 1963-1964. The eastern third between I-75 in Royal Oak and I-94 in St. Clair Shores was completed in early 1979, followed by the middle portion between Telegraph Road and I-75 in December 1989. I-696 is a full freeway along its entire length.
For a short time in the 1970s, M-6 was used in place of the routing for the segment under construction east of I-75. It was unclear whether the lawsuits would force the center segment to be canceled, which would have left the I-696 freeway discontiguous. M-6 signs were erected on both the frontage roads and the divided road of 11 Mile at Mound Road.
Construction of the Reuther took much longer than expected and went over budget. The major contributors to this were the Pleasant Ridge and Detroit Zoo lawsuits to stop construction of the freeway. Another was the fact that the eastern end of the Reuther ran through built-up neighborhoods, many of which were less than 10–15 years in age. In fact, some of the neighborhoods in the Hoover and Van Dyke area were under construction at the same time as the I-696 project which led to confrontations between the two construction projects, costing freeway developers more than anticipated to purchase the land.
As part of the overall rehabilitation to the "Mixing Bowl" interchange (where the freeway crosses both US-24 and M-10 in Southfield), a new partial interchange at Franklin Road was constructed. An exit ramp from I-696 eastbound to American Drive opened in April 2006. An entrance ramp from Franklin Road to I-696 westbound opened in July 2006. The Franklin Road overpass, which had been closed during this time, re-opened in October 2006.[3]
St. Clair Shores mayor Eugene Ellison (1961–1965) was instrumental in blocking plans to extend I-696 east of I-94 and dividing the St Clair Shores neighborhoods.
I-696 begins in the west near the city of Novi as a left exit branching off of I-96 as a portion of the I-96/I-696/I-275/M-5 interchange, the largest freeway interchange in the world. It collects traffic from northbound I-275 as it treks east through Farmington Hills and Southfield on its way to the "Mixing Bowl", where it encounters M-10 (the Lodge Freeway) and US 24 (Telegraph Road) at its former temporary terminus in another complicated interchange. If one wishes to access US 24, it can only be done via the M-10 exit. After this interchange, 11 Mile Road straddles I-696. Further east, just after the Southfield Road exit, the interstate makes an "S" shape just prior to the Greenfield Road exit and leaves 11 Mile Road. After Greenfield Road, 10 Mile Road then straddles the freeway and continues east to M-1 (Woodward Avenue) and I-75 (the Chrysler Freeway). After a four-level stack interchange with I-75, I-696 jogs northeast, leaving 10 Mile Road and again is straddled by 11 Mile Road. The freeway then encounters Mound Road in another stack (in anticipation of the construction of the southern "missing link" of the M-53 Freeway), making a slight bend to the south. Its last exit is M-3 (Gratiot Ave.) just west of the eastern terminus at I-94 (the Edsel Ford Freeway) in Macomb County. The road continues going due east over I-94 as 11 Mile Road to Jefferson Avenue, St. Clair Shores, and Lake St.Clair.
The segment of the Reuther located between the "Mixing Bowl" and I-75 is known for its extensive use of retaining walls and three large landscaped caps forming short tunnels for freeway traffic. The caps were constructed as plazas with respect to the local Orthodox Jewish communities in need of the most direct route to weekly temple services, which the freeway's route as originally planned was seen to interrupt.[4] Negotiations related to the plazas were the primary reason the completion of this section of the Reuther was delayed until 1989. As a consequence of those beautification features, explosive flammable cargoes are banned on that segment.
I-696's western terminus is also the northern terminus of I-275, making this junction one of the few points that is the terminus of two three-digit Interstate Highways with different parents.
| County | Location | Mile[1] | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakland |
Farmington Hills | 0.000– 1.371 |
1 | I-96 / I-275 south / M-5 (Grand River Avenue) – Lansing, Toledo | |
| 4.570– 4.635 |
5 | Orchard Lake Road | |||
| Southfield | 7.363– 7.489 |
7 | American Drive | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |
| 7.763– 8.241 |
8 | M-10 south (Lodge Freeway) to US 24 (Telegraph Road) | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 10.040 | 10 | M-10 north (Northwestern Highway) to US 24 (Telegraph Road) / Lahser Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
| 10.444– 11.300 |
11 | Evergreen Road | |||
| Lathrup Village | 11.474– 12.359 |
12 | 11 Mile Road, Southfield Road | ||
| Oak Park | 13.008– 13.646 |
13 | Greenfield Road | ||
| Huntington Woods | 13.982– 14.824 |
14 | 10 Mile Road, Coolidge Road | ||
| Royal Oak | 15.743– 16.692 |
16 | M-1 (Woodward Avenue) / Main Street – Detroit Zoo | ||
| 16.909 | 17 | Campbell Road, Hilton Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 17.373– 17.378 |
17 | Bermuda Street | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
| 17.706– 18.292 |
18 | I-75 (Chrysler Freeway) – Flint, Detroit, Toledo | |||
| Madison Heights | 18.647– 18.668 |
19 | Couzens Avenue, 10 Mile Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |
| 19.258– 19.966 |
20 | Dequindre Road, Ryan Road, John R Road | |||
| Macomb |
Warren | 20.523 | 21 | 11 Mile Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance |
| 21.512– 22.340 |
22 | Mound Road | |||
| Center Line | 22.611– 23.160 |
23 | M-53 (Van Dyke Avenue) / Ryan Road | ||
| Warren | 23.666– 24.344 |
24 | Hoover Road, Schoenherr Road | ||
| Roseville | 25.166– 26.259 |
26 | M-97 (Groesbeck Highway) / Schoenherr Road | ||
| 27.083– 27.771 |
27 | M-3 (Gratiot Avenue) | |||
| 27.970– 27.991 |
28 | 11 Mile Road | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| St. Clair Shores | 28.271– 28.368 |
I-94 (Ford Freeway) – Detroit, Port Huron | |||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus • Closed/Former • Incomplete access • Unopened |
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||