Skip to main content

M-153

By


M-153 is a 25.127-mile State Trunkline located in southeast Michigan.  The highway begins at US Route 12 (Michigan Avenue) at the Detroit city limit and largely follows Ford Road west to M-14 in Washtenaw County.  M-153 was designated as a State Trunkline during December 1930.  The corridor at the time was constructed to Canton Center Road and was planned to be extended to the vicinity of Jackson.  The Trunkline was constructed to US Route 12 at Plymouth Road in 1934 and the extension to Jackson was cancelled in 1935.  Numerous improvements to M-153 occurred through the remainder of the 20th century as it became an increasingly traveled urban surface highway.  




Part 1; the history of M-153

M-153 between Wyoming Road at the Detroit city limit is carried via Ford Road just west of Frazier Lake Road.  The corridor is named in honor Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford's father William.  

William Ford settled at what is now the corner of Ford Road and Greenfield Road circa 1847 in Dearborn Township.  William Ford was a well-known public servant who served as a road commissioner, justice of the peace and school board member.   The corridor was ultimately named Ford Road in his honor during 1905. 

When Ford Road was named, the corridor extended from Weir Street/McGraw Avenue west to Canton Center Road in Canton Township.  The western terminus of Ford Road can be seen on the 1905 United States Geological Survey Map of Wayne.  


M-153 was designated as a 47.4-mile-long State Trunkline on December 2, 1930.    M-153 was part of the proposed "Detroit-Chicago Superhighway" which was planned to be largely constructed on a new alignment west of Canton Center Road.  As originally adopted the Trunkline began at then US Route 112 (Michigan Avenue) at the Detroit/Dearborn city limit.  The highway followed Wyoming Avenue and Ford Road to a western terminus at Canton Center Road.  The planned corridor west of Canton Center Road passed through Ann Arbor and Sylvan where it would have ended at Michigan Avenue (US Route 12) near the eastern city limit of Jackson. 

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

The original western terminus of M-153 at Canton Center Road can be seen on the 1934 Rand McNally Junior Map of Michigan.  


By Summer 1933 M-153 was extended west to Napier Road at the Wayne/Washtenaw County line.  By July 1934 the Trunkline was extended west to US Route 12 at Plymouth Road in Washtenaw County.  The western extension beyond Plymouth Road was cancelled by the State on January 7, 1935.  

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

M-153 appears complete between US Route 112 and US Route 12 on the 1939 Rand McNally Map of Michigan.  


On March 31, 1965, the M-14 freeway from US Route 23 east to M-153 was established as a functional Trunkline.  The new corridor was developed concurrently with an expressway grade which realigned M-153 west of Frains Lake Road to Plymouth Road and the new M-14 freeway.  A portion of M-153 along Ford Road between the new alignment to where it originally met Plymouth Road was relinquished to the county. 

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

The extension of M-153 to Plymouth Road and the M-14 freeway can be seen on the 1965 United States Geological Survey Map of Eastern Ann Arbor.  M-153 and M-14 may have been signed via a multiplex west of Plymouth Road.  


By December 1973 M-153 between Artesian Street/Auto Club Drive west to Golfview Drive was reconstructed to freeway standards.  An un-signed portion of the original highway was renamed as Altar Road and was not relinquished until January 1985.  By February 1980 the eastern extension of the M-14 freeway would open which led to M-153 formally being extended west of Plymouth Road.  

(Source: michiganhighways.org)



Part 2; a drive on western M-153

M-153 can be accessed from Interstate 275 Exit 25 to Ford Road.  




Westbound M-153 passes through Canton Township via Ford Road.  At the Township edge the Trunkline passes the original terminus of Canton Center Road.  



Westbound M-153 enters Washtenaw County and drops to two lanes.  The highway expands again to four lanes approaching a bypassed segment of Ford Road near Frains Lake Road.  










M-153 intersects the original alignment of US Route 12 at Plymouth Road.  M-14 was designated over the Plymouth Road corridor during 1956.  US Route 12 was originally moved to the initial freeway segments comprising Interstate 94.  Ultimately the highway was relocated onto what was US Route 112 in between Detroit and New Buffalo in 1961.  





The western terminus of M-153 is located at the M-14 freeway.  



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more