page_title: U.S. Route 27 in Michigan
section_title: Conversion to freeways
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 27 in Michigan / History / Conversion to freeways
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking northbound on U.S. Highway 27 in w:Clare County, Michigan. Taken in mid-1950s.
context_page_description: US Highway 27 is a part of the US Highway System that now runs from Miami, Florida, to Fort Wayne, Indiana. In the US state of Michigan, it was a north–south state trunkline highway that entered the state south of Kinderhook and ended south of Grayling. Its route consisted of a freeway concurrency with Interstate 69 from the state line north to the Lansing area before it followed its own freeway facility northward to St. Johns. From there north to Ithaca, US 27 was an expressway before continuing as a freeway to a terminus south of Grayling.
  Created with the rest of the US Highway System on November 11, 1926, US 27 replaced a pair of state highways between the state line and the Cheboygan area. For a time, US 27 even extended from Cheboygan to St. Ignace over the Mackinac Bridge. The highway was converted into a series of freeways starting in the late 1950s. The northernmost section between Grayling and Mackinaw City, bypassing Cheboygan, became part of I-75, and US 27 was truncated to Grayling. Starting in the 1960s, the southern sections were included in I-69. The last section of Interstate in Michigan was completed in 1992 when I-69/US 27 opened southwest of Lansing.
context_section_description: The first planning maps from 1947 for what later became the Interstate Highway System did not include a highway along US 27's route; instead a highway further west connecting South Bend, Indiana, with Kalamazoo was included. This alternative highway was maintained on the 1955 plan for the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways", and numbered I-67 in August 1957. By June 1958, this freeway had been shifted further east and renumbered I-69, connecting Indianapolis, Indiana, with Marshall; no connections north and east to Lansing were planned as part of the Interstate Highway System.
  The Mackinac Bridge was opened to traffic on November 1, 1957; a new section of freeway and an interchange connected US 2 to the bridge on the northern end, and a new approach road connected to U.S. Route 31 in Michigan and US 27 in Mackinaw City on the southern end. The US 27 designation was initially extended across the bridge from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace. In November 1960, sections of I-75 freeway opened from Indian River north to the southern Mackinac Bridge approaches in Mackinaw City, and US 27 was removed from the bridge.
  In 1961, the MSHD had proposed that the section of US 27 south of Lansing be built as an electronic highway under a bid through General Motors; the testing for such a roadway was ultimately done at Ohio State University instead. That October, the first segment of I-75 near Grayling opened, connecting M-18 with the city. By the end of the year, the former segment of US 27 between Grayling and Gaylord was turned back to local control, and the section of highway between Indian River and Cheboygan was redesignated M-27. After this individual segment of freeway was completed, there was a gap between Gaylord and Indian River that was designated "TO I-75" on maps along the former segment of US 27, and US 27 was truncated to about five miles (8.0 km) south of Grayling. Also by the end of the same year, the highway was shifted to follow a new freeway routing from the southwest of Ithaca to Grayling, bypassing Ithaca, St. Louis, Mount Pleasant, Clare and Harrison. The old route was turned over to local control except through the aforementioned cities where it was reused for business loops. The US 27A through Alma was also bypassed by the new freeway, and it was redesignated Bus. US 27 as well. Another non-freeway bypass was built around Charlotte, and the former route was redesignated Bus. US 27.
  In August 1962, the section of I-75 between Gaylord and Vanderbilt was completed. On December 12, 1962, I-96 was completed around the Lansing area, and M-78 was rerouted to follow it. The route of US 27/M-78 through downtown Lansing became US 27/Bus. M-78. On October 11, 1967, the first segment of I-69/US 27 was scheduled to open between the Indiana state line and Tekonsha. By the end of the year, the freeway was extended north to Marshall. The former route of US 27 in Coldwater was redesignated as a Business Loop I-69 (BL I-69) as well.
  The MSHD requested additional Interstate Highway mileage in 1968 under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 including an extension of I-69 from Marshall to Port Huron; this extension was approved as far as I-75/US 23 in Flint on December 13, 1968. This extension encompassed the US 27 corridor between Marshall and Lansing.
  In 1970, the I-69/US 27 freeway was extended from Marshall to just south of Olivet. The next year, the freeway was extended north to, and incorporated, the previous Charlotte bypass. Bus. US 27 through Charlotte remains unchanged. In 1973, the M-78 concurrency from Olivet northeasterly along US 27 was removed, and the connection along US 27 northeast of the existing I-69 freeway was designated TEMP I-69. The following year, Bus. US 27 in Charlotte was renumbered as a BL I-69. In the middle of 1974, Indiana and Michigan petitioned AASHTO to decommission the US 27 designation north of Fort Wayne, Indiana, including the entire length in Michigan; this request was denied.
  A northern freeway bypass of the Lansing area opened in 1984. MDOT rerouted US 27 to follow I-96 around 
caption: US 27 before relocation and conversion to a freeway near Clare
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