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Grand River Avenue sign in East Lansing

Grand River Avenue is one of the principal pre-Interstate roads in the state of Michigan. The modern road cuts across the Lower Peninsula in a southeast-to-northwest fashion from Detroit to Grand Rapids. The portion of Grand River Avenue in Detroit between I-96 and the intersection with Cass Avenue and Middle Street in downtown Detroit is an unsigned state trunkline, sometimes referred to as OLD BS I-96.

In Detroit, Grand River is one of five major avenues (along with Woodward, Michigan, Gratiot, and Jefferson) planned by Judge Augustus Woodward in 1805 that extend from downtown Detroit in differing directions. Grand River Avenue extends northwesterly from the city's downtown.

Grand River Avenue (not to be confused with the actual Grand River, which it parallels for much its route) starts in the very heart of downtown Detroit, where it intersects Woodward Avenue. It cuts diagonally across Detroit to Redford Township and the city of Farmington. It continues through Novi, Brighton, Howell, Fowlerville, Webberville, Williamston, and Okemos.

The highway becomes a wide tree-lined boulevard when it reaches East Lansing, where it serves as dividing line between the Michigan State University campus and the rest of the city. Here, it is lined with many college-oriented businesses, such as bars, tanning salons, coffee shops, head shops, and bookstores. It then runs northwest to Lansing's Old Town, where it manages to intersect itself before heading up to the Lansing Capital City Airport.

From Lansing, Grand River Avenue passes through Eagle and Portland before reaching Lowell, near which it stubs at Cascade Road. However, Grand River Ave. picks up again on the outskirts of Lowell, via Alden Nash, following the Grand River and continues to Ada, then through Plainfield, terminating again at East Beltline on the outskirts of Grand Rapids.

Here is a list of trunkline designations for this highway and their latter designations:

• M-16 (defunct, replaced by US-16)
• US-16 (defunct, supplanted mostly by I-96)
• Business US-16 (Farmington) (defunct, replaced by BL I-96)
• BL I-96 (Farmington) (defunct, became unsigned state highway upon completion of the Jeffries Freeway)
• BS I-96 (Detroit) (former)
  • segment northwest of I-96 exit 185 became M-5
  • segment southeast of I-96 remains trunkline, unsigned as Old BS I-96
• M-5 (from M-5 freeway to I-96 exit 185)
• M-102 (truncated back to 8 Mile Road in 1994, replaced by M-5)
• BL I-96 (Howell)
• M-43 (from northeastern Lansing to M-52, near Webberville)
• BS I-96 (Portland)

In 1850, the Michigan State Legislature established the Lansing and Howell Plank Road Company, which set about converting various Indian trails into the Lansing-Howell Plank Road, a task the company completed by 1853. At Howell the road connected with the Detroit-Howell Plank Road, establishing the first improved connection direct from the state capital to Michigan's largest metropolis. The Lansing-Detroit Plank Road was a toll road until the 1880s. It eventually evolved into the modern Grand River Avenue.^[1]

With the creation of the U.S. Highway System, Grand River became part of U.S. 16. This lasted until the creation of the Interstate Highway System, when Grand River was paralleled by I-96. The U.S. 16 designation was removed, and the portion of Grand River from Webberville to Lansing became part of M-43. Today Grand River Avenue remains the main street of over a dozen Michigan cities, and a scenic route through one of the state's most populated corridors.

In 1995, major reconstruction work along Grand River Avenue in East Lansing uncovered rotting logs, buried about two feet below the present grade, that had been used as underlayment for the plank road surface in a low, swampy area. The logs had been in place for nearly 150 years.^[2]

When US-16 was deleted in 1962, Grand River Avenue was designated as "BS I-96" (Business Spur I-96). Upon completion of the I-96/Jeffries Freeway in Detroit in 1977, portions were re-designated as M-102 and M-5 (later the extension of M-102 became part of M-5). From the I-96/Jeffries Freeway southeast into downtown Detroit, Grand River Avenue remained under state control as an unsigned state trunkline, sometimes referred to as "OLD BS I-96". In 2004, the state transferred several blocks at the eastern end of Grand River Avenue to the City of Detroit. State trunkline control now ends at the corner of Grand River Avenue, Middle Street, and Cass Avenue.

• Historic US-16 in Michigan
• Unsigned Old BS I-96