page_title: Interstate 96
section_title: Muskegon to Grand Rapids
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 96 / Route description / Muskegon to Grand Rapids
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture taken by me for VCS on November 11, 2005.
context_page_description: Interstate 96 is an east–west Interstate Highway that runs for approximately 192 miles entirely within the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The western terminus is at an interchange with US Highway 31 and Business US 31 on the eastern boundary of Norton Shores southeast of Muskegon, and the eastern terminus is at I-75 near the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. From Grand Rapids through Lansing to Detroit, the freeway parallels Grand River Avenue, never straying more than a few miles from the decommissioned US 16. The Wayne County section of I-96 is named the Jeffries Freeway from its eastern terminus to the junction with I-275 and M-14. Though maps still refer to the freeway as the Jeffries, the portion within the city of Detroit was renamed by the state legislature as the Rosa Parks Memorial Highway in December 2005 in honor of the late civil rights pioneer. There are four auxiliary Interstates as well as two current and four former business routes associated with I-96.
  Grand River Avenue originated as an Indian trail before Michigan statehood. It later was used as a wagon road across the state.
context_section_description: I-96 begins at a three-quarter cloverleaf interchange with US 31 northeast of the Muskegon County Airport in Norton Shores, near Muskegon. At the starting terminus, the highway has a grassy median and two lanes in each direction as it travels southeasterly through rural Muskegon County. The freeway is paralleled by Airline Highway in an area with a mix of fields and residences as far as Fruitport. I-96 bypasses that village to the north and east before crossing into Ottawa County at Fruitport Road. After a distance of about five miles (8.0 km) in the county, the trunkline reaches Nunica. The highway crosses the Crockery Creek and turns eastward toward Coopersville. The freeway runs parallel to the Grand River, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the north. Near Ironwood Drive, I-96 turns southeasterly again and goes through Marne.
  Beyond Marne, I-96 passes the western end of M-11 and crosses into Kent County, curving around a rest area for the eastbound lanes. The freeway runs eastward through a light industrial area of the suburb of Walker as it enters the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. At the interchange with Alpine Avenue, M-37 merges onto the freeway and the two run concurrently past the studios for WZZM-TV with its iconic weatherball, a 16-foot-wide (4.9 m) sphere 100 feet (30 m) above the ground that uses colored lights to display a weather forecast. Adjacent to the studios are the ramps from eastbound I-96 to southbound US 131 and from northbound US 131 to westbound I-96. These ramps mark the northern end of I-296, an unsigned auxiliary Interstate Highway designation applied to them and the US 131 freeway south to downtown Grand Rapids. I-96 turns northeasterly past a commercial area to a three-quarter cloverleaf interchange that provides all of the other connections with US 131 next to a crossing of the Grand River.
  East of the river, I-96 and M-37 pass through the northern suburb of Comstock Park, intersecting Connector M-44 (CONN M-44, Plainfield Avenue) near Lamberton Lake. Past that interchange, the freeway angles southeasterly and then southward, bypassing Grand Rapids to the northeast. East of downtown, I-96/M-37 meets I-196 (Gerald R. Ford Freeway) at a partial interchange; traffic headed eastbound on I-196 must enter I-96 eastbound and only westbound I-96 traffic may enter I-196. Immediately east of the interchange is another for M-44 (East Beltline Avenue) where M-37 separates from the freeway to turn southward. Through this series of interchanges, I-96 curves to the east and then turns back southward after passing through them. There are two more interchanges for M-21 (Fulton Street) and Cascade Road before I-96 meets the eastern end of M-11 at 28th Street. The next interchange for 36th Street provides access to the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. The freeway continues to the east of the airport and then intersects the eastern end of M-6 (Paul B. Henry Freeway, South Beltline Freeway) at an interchange over the confluence of the Thornapple and Grand rivers.
caption: WZZM-TV's Weatherball next to I-96 in Walker
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