U.S. Route 131

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

U.S. Route 131
Length:	268.80 mi (432.59 km)
South end:	I-80 / I-90 / Ind. Toll Rd. / SR 13 near Middlebury, IN
Major junctions:	I-94 near Kalamazoo, MI I-96 / I-196 at Grand Rapids, MI US 10 near Reed City, MI M-55 at Cadillac, MI M-72 at Kalkaska, MI
North end:	US 31 at Petoskey, MI
United States Numbered Highways < SR 130 IN SR 134 > < M-130 MI M-131 > List – Bannered – Divided – Replaced

U.S. Route 131 (US 131) is a north-south United States highway. All but 0.60 miles (0.97 km) of its length is within Michigan. The total length of the highway is around 269 miles (433 km) with approximately 169 miles (272 km) of that freeway. US 131 also features six business routes. When the U.S. Highway System debuted, US 131 was designated along the path of what had been M-13 in Michigan. The southern terminus of US 131 is approximately five miles (8 km) north of Middlebury, Indiana at an intersection with the Indiana Toll Road, just south of the Michigan-Indiana border, where it continues as State Road 13.The northern terminus is in Petoskey, Michigan, at an intersection with US 31. US 131 has never extended any farther south than the Indiana Toll Road since its inception in 1926. Indeed, prior to 1959, US 131 terminated at the Michigan-Indiana state line and, as such, existed in only one state.

Contents 1 Route description 1.1 Indiana 1.2 Michigan 1.3 Lane configurations 2 History 3 Future 4 Exit List 5 Interstate 296 5.1 Route description 5.2 Exit List 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Route description

[edit] Indiana

US 131 extends 3,168 feet (966 m) into Indiana before terminating at the entrance to the Indiana Toll Road few hundred feet north of the Toll Road overpass.^[1] SR 13 runs with US 131 in this section but is not signposted.^[1][2]

[edit] Michigan

US 131 runs for a distance of approximately 268 miles (431 km) in Michigan, from the Indiana state line northerly to Petoskey. It is a major highway in West Michigan, serving the cities of Three Rivers, Portage, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Big Rapids, Reed City, Cadillac, Kalkaska, and Petoskey. The highway is an important link between Grand Rapids and the tourist areas of northwest Michigan.

It has full interchanges with four freeways: I-94 southwest of Kalamazoo, M-6 on the south side of Grand Rapids, I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids, and I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids. The portion between I-196 and I-96 also bears the unposted designation of I-296.

US 131 is a freeway from south of Portage to north of Manton, Michigan; it is a divided surface highway from just south of Portage to Three Rivers, a portion of which is constructed to "expressway" standards on controlled-access right-of-way (except that in Schoolcraft it is an undivided city street). While further northerly extension of the US 131 freeway from Manton toward Kalkaska and beyond has been shelved by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), a southerly extension of the freeway to or near the Indiana state line is still under study. Improvements to the US 131 corridor from Portage to the Indiana Toll Road have been underway for several years (see "Future" section) and while a late-2005 decision by MDOT to not pursue a new alignment, controlled-access route through St. Joseph County seemed to put an end to that discussion, public outcry and backlash from local legislators caused the department to re-evaluate this decision.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Lane configurations

• From Indiana Toll Road to Three Rivers — two lanes, undivided, except through Constantine.
• Three Rivers — five lanes undivided.
• From Three Rivers to Moore Park — four lane divided expressway.
• From Moore Park to freeway terminus south of Portage — four lanes, divided except in Schoolcraft.
• From beginning of freeway to metropolitan Grand Rapids — four lane freeway.
• In metropolitan Grand Rapids (76th St to I-96) — six lane freeway, except in "S-Curve" where it is eight lanes. The lanes are reversed at the I-196 interchange.
• From metropolitan Grand Rapids to north of Manton — four lane freeway.
• From north of freeway to Petoskey — two lanes, undivided, except through Kalkaska and Mancelona and where passing lanes have been constructed.
• Within the Petoskey area — five lanes, undivided.

[edit] History

US 131 debuted, along with the rest of the U.S. Highway System, in late 1926, although at the time it only ran from the Michigan-Indiana state line northerly to the small northern Michigan community of Fife Lake in Grand Traverse County. The Michigan State Highway Department had originally planned to construct a new-alignment highway connecting Fife Lake with the Traverse City area, which would have allowed US 131 to connect with its "parent" route, US 31. After a dozen years and no progress on the Fife Lake-Traverse City connection, the US 131 designation was instead routed along what had been designated as M-131 since 1926 through Kalkaska to US 31 at Petoskey, where it finally met US 31 for the first time. Until 1959, US 131 turned westerly and was concurrently designated with US 112 (now US 12) to what is now M-103, then southerly to the Indiana state line.

The first portion of the US 131 corridor to be converted to freeway standards was completed in 1957 between Wayland in Allegan County and M-11 (28th Street) in Wyoming in Kent County. Further extensions in the 1960s took the US 131 freeway both south (to Plainwell, then past Kalamazoo to north of Schoolcraft) and north (through Grand Rapids to I-96) of that original freeway segment. The 1960s also saw a short segment of US 131 freeway constructed south of Cadillac.

The 1970s saw the US 131 freeway expand to the north of Grand Rapids, first to Cedar Springs then to north of Howard City. In the 1980s, major construction in the corridor extended the freeway northerly past Big Rapids and Reed City to a connection with the freeway heading southerly from Cadillac. As of 1986, the US 131 freeway ran from north of Schoolcraft to Cadillac.

By the late 1990s a major section of the US 131 freeway in Grand Rapids was found to be sinking as a result of gypsum mining which left voids in subsurface material. After a major study was completed to analyze the various options for the so-called "Grand Rapids S-Curve," the entire one mile (1.6 km) segment of freeway was shut down in January 2000 for complete reconstruction. The new "S-Curve" structure, which includes the bridge spanning the Grand River, was built with an additional through lane in each direction and completed in 209 and 283 days for the north- and southbound lanes, respectively. Early completion of the project allowed the primary contractor, Kiewit, to earn approximately 90% of a possible bonus. In 2001, a freeway bypass of Cadillac was completed and Manton, the next community to the north, was bypassed with an extension of the US 131 freeway in 2003.

[edit] Future

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has begun a project to upgrade a section of US 131 the length of 16.4 miles (26.4 km) in St. Joseph County.^[3] The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project was published April 11, 2008,^[4] and the Preferred Alternative consists of a two-lane road bypassing the village of Constantine.^[5] MDOT has stated that a full freeway on new alignment from the Indiana Toll Road northerly to north of Three Rivers would cost over $200 million to build and that present traffic demands do not warrant the cost of a full freeway facility.^[6]

[edit] Exit List

This section contains a table that is missing mileposts for one or more junctions. Please help by adding the missing mileposts.

Following is a list of the major highways US 131 intersects:

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Elkhart County, Indiana	Middlebury			I-80 / I-90 / Ind. Toll Rd. / SR 13	Roadway continues south as SR 13
St. Joseph	White Pigeon			US 12
	Three Rivers			BUS US 131 / M-60
				BUS US 131
	Moorepark			M-216
Kalamazoo	Portage		31	Centre Avenue - Portage
			34	I-94 – Detroit, Chicago	South end of I-94 BL overlap; signed as exits 34A (east) and 34B (west) northbound
	Oshtemo Township		36	BL I-94 east / BUS US 131 north (Stadium Drive) – Kalamazoo, Oshtemo	North end of I-94 BL overlap; signed as exits 36A (east/north) and 36B (west)
			38	M-43 – Kalamazoo, South Haven	Signed as exits 38A (east) and 38B (west)
			41	BUS US 131 south – Downtown Kalamazoo	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Alamo Township		44	D Avenue
Allegan	Plainwell		49	M-89 – Plainwell, Otsego, Allegan	Signed as exits 49A (east) and 49B (west)
			50	106th Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Martin		55	M-222 – Martin, Allegan
	Shelbyville		59	Shelbyville
	Bradley		61	M-179 / A-42 – Bradley, Hopkins
	Wayland		64	135th Avenue - Wayland, Hilliards
	Dorr		68	142nd Avenue - Dorr, Moline
Kent	Byron Center		72	100th Street
			74	84th Street - Byron Center
			75	76th Street
			76	68th Street - Cutlerville
			77	M-6 – Holland, Lansing
	Wyoming		78	54th Street
			79	44th Street	Under construction until November 2009[7]
			80	36th Street
			81	M-11 (28th Street) – Wyoming
	Grand Rapids		82A	Burton Street	Signed as exits 82A (east) and 82B (west) southbound
			82B	Hynes Avenue	Northbound exit only
			83A	Hall Street
			83B	BS I-196 (Franklin Street)
			84A	Wealthy Street	Left exit northbound
			84B	BUS US 131 north – Downtown Grand Rapids	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			85A	Market Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			85B	Pearl Street - Downtown Grand Rapids
			86	I-196 (G.R. Ford Freeway) / I-296 – Lansing, Holland	Signed as exits 86A (east) and 86B (west) South end of unsigned I-296 concurrency
			87	BUS US 131 south (Leonard Street)
			88	Ann Street
	Walker		89	I-96 / M-37 / I-296 – Lansing, Muskegon	Signed as exits 89A (east) and 89B (west) southbound North end of unsigned I-296 concurency
	Plainfield Township		91	West River Drive - Comstock Park
			95	Post Drive - Belmont
	Rockford		97	10 Mile Road - Rockford
	Algoma Township		101	M-57 / B-72 – Sparta, Greenville
	Cedar Springs		104	M-46 west – Muskegon, Cedar Springs	South end of M-46 concurrency
	Sand Lake		110	Sand Lake
Montcalm	Pierson Township		114	Pierson
	Howard City		118	M-82 – Howard City, Newaygo
	Reynolds Township		120	M-46 east – Saginaw	North end of M-46 concurrency
Mecosta	Morley		125	Jefferson Road - Morley
	Stanwood		131	M-20 west – White Cloud	South end of M-20 concurrency
	Big Rapids		139	M-20 east / BUS US 131 north – Big Rapids	North end of M-20 concurrency;BUS US 131 only signed northbound
			142	B-96 / BUS US 131 south (19 Mile Road) – Big Rapids	BUS US 131 only signed southbound
Osceola	Reed City		153	US 10 – Ludington, Clare
	Ashton		159	11 Mile Road
	Le Roy		162	14 Mile Road
	Tustin		168	20 Mile Road
Wexford	Cadillac		176	M-115 (M-55 west) – Frankfort, Clare	South end of M-55 concurrency
			177	BUS US 131 north – Cadillac
			180	M-55 east – Lake City	North end of M-55 concurrency
			183	BUS US 131 south (Boon Road) – Cadillac
	Manton		191	M-42 / BUS US 131 – Lake City, Manton	BUS US 131 not signed
				BUS US 131	Freeway ends southeast of intersection
Grand Traverse	Walton			M-113 west – Kingsley
	Fife Lake			M-186
Kalkaska	Kalkaska			M-66 south / M-72 east – Lake City, Grayling	Southern end of US 131/M-66/M-72 concurrency
				M-72 west – Traverse City	Northern end of M-72 concurrency
Antrim	Mancelona			M-88 (Mancelona Road) / C-38 – Gaylord
				M-66 – Charlevoix	North end of M-66 concurrency
	Alba			C-42 (Alba Road) – Gaylord
	Warner Township			M-32 – East Jordan, Gaylord	Short concurrency
Charlevoix	Boyne Falls			M-75 / C-48
	Walloon Lake			M-75 / C-81
Emmet	Petoskey			US 31 – Mackinaw City

Legend
Concurrency terminus	Unconstructed

[edit] Interstate 296

Interstate 296 Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System
Maintained by MDOT
Length:	3.43 mi[8] (5.52 km)
Formed:	1962
South end:	I-196 / US 131 in Grand Rapids, MI
North end:	I-96 / US 131 / M-37 in Walker, MI
Michigan highways < M-294 M-311 >

Interstate 296 (abbreviated I-296) is an unsigned 3.4 miles (5.5 km) segment of US 131 entirely within Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its termini are I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids and I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids. As the entire length coincides with US 131—which continues as a freeway built to interstate standards north and south of the short segment— the Michigan Department of Transportation simplified matters by eliminating all signage for I-296 and removing the designation from their officially published state map.^[9]

[edit] Route description

The freeway begins at the I-196 interchange where the three north bound lanes are on the left and the three south bound lanes are on the right. This gets flip-flopped after ramps for the I-196 are passed as the south bound lanes go over the northbound lanes. The freeway is three lanes in each direction the entire length. It has a grassy median north of Ann St. Approaching I-96 from the south, unsigned I-296 follows the left two lanes to I-96 westbound toward Muskegon, terminating at I-96 near the Alpine Ave overpass. Southbound unsigned I-296 begins where the ramps to US 131 southbound split from eastbound I-96 at the Alpine Ave overpass, merging with southbound US 131 north of Ann St.

[edit] Exit List

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Kent	Grand Rapids		86	I-196 (G.R. Ford Freeway) / I-296 – Lansing, Holland	Signed as exits 86A (east) and 86B (west) South end of unsigned I-296 concurrency
			87	BUS US 131 south (Leonard Street)
			88	Ann Street
	Walker		89	I-96 / M-37 / I-296 – Lansing, Muskegon	Signed as exits 89A (east) and 89B (west) southbound North end of unsigned I-296 concurency

[edit] See also

Special routes

• U.S. Route 131 Business in Big Rapids, Michigan
• U.S. Route 131 Business in Cadillac, Michigan
• U.S. Route 131 Business in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• U.S. Route 131 Business in Kalamazoo, Michigan
• U.S. Route 131 Business in Manton, Michigan
• U.S. Route 131 Business in Three Rivers, Michigan

Related routes

• U.S. Route 31
• Indiana State Road 13

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• US 131 at Michigan Highways
• US 131 at Michigan Highways Ends
• Former US 131 Southern Terminus (now M-103)
• Former US 131 Northern Terminus (M-113/M-186 junction)
• I-296 at Michigan Highways
• I-296 at Interstate-Guide -- Photos of termini and scan of 1970s Michigan map before the freeway designation was "hidden".

v • d • e Auxiliary routes of Interstate 96 Michigan: 196 • 296 (unsigned) • 496 • 696

v • d • e Northern Michigan Topics Lake Huron · Lake Michigan · List of National Historic Landmarks in Michigan · Protected areas of Michigan · Timeline of Michigan history Major Highways I-75 · US 10 · US 23 · US 31 · US 127 · US 131 · I-73 (future) Central cities Traverse City · Alpena Satellite cities St. Ignace · Mount Pleasant · Saginaw · Sault Ste. Marie · Grand Rapids Region Northern Michigan Outlying regions Flint/Tri-Cities · Mid-Michigan · West Michigan · Upper Peninsula Counties Alcona · Alger · Alpena · Antrim · Arenac · Benzie · Charlevoix · Cheboygan · Clare · Crawford · Emmet · Gladwin · Grand Traverse · Iosco · Kalkaska · Lake · Leelanau · Manistee · Missaukee · Montmorency · Ogemaw · Osceola · Oscoda · Otsego · Presque Isle · Roscommon · Wexford See also: Michigan

v • d • e Grand Traverse County, Michigan highways M-22 • U.S. Route 31 in Michigan • M-37 • M-72 • M-113 • U.S. Route 131 • M-186