Skip to main content

Interstate 375 in Detroit, a doomed freeway?

By

I-375 is a short 1.147 mile spur of I-75 in downtown Detroit which connects to the unsigned I-375 Business Spur on Jefferson Avenue.  I-375 is the southernmost segment of the Walter P. Chrysler Freeway which carried largely by I-75 in the City of Detroit.  Construction of I-375 began in 1959 and the freeway was open to traffic by late 1964 according to michiganhighways.org.

michiganhighways.org on I-375

The average traffic count on I-375 ranges between approximately 14,000 vehicles at Jefferson Avenue and approximately 54,000 vehicles at I-75.  The low traffic counts on I-375 has recently led to proposals to put the freeway on a "road diet."  In 2013 the Michigan Department of Transportation announced that it may at some point in the future remove I-375.  In 2014 MDOT announced six proposals for I-375 which were eventually reduced to only two boulevard alternatives by 2017.  In late 2018 a six to seven lane boulevard replacement of I-375 was recommended by MDOT.   Meeting minutes from December of 2018 regarding the possible future of I-375 being converted to a boulevard can be found below.

I-375 Improvement Project Meeting Summary 12/13/2018

Given I-375 appears to be a doomed freeway I decided to drive it while I could in its present configuration.  My approach to I-375 was from Comerica Park via I-75 north on the Fisher Freeway.  I turned onto I-375 southbound via I-75 Exit 51C.







I-375 southbound has several unnumbered exits.  The first exit accesses Lafayette Street which is signed as access to the Greektown Casino.




The second exit on I-375 south accesses Jefferson Avenue eastbound via Chrysler Drive.



I-375 south makes a sweeping right hand turn in front of the Renaissance Center before terminating at westbound Jefferson Avenue.  The Renaissance Center is presently the company headquarters for General Motors.  The central tower of the Renaissance Center was completed in 1977 and is the tallest building in Detroit measuring at 750 feet at the top of antenna.





The unsigned Business Spur I-375 continues on Jefferson Avenue westbound to Randolph Street where it junctions M-3 and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.




Labels:

Comments

David said…
That sweeping curve on I-375 by the RenCen goes to the right in this direction of travel.
12:42 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more