page_title: Interstate 196
section_title: Holland to Grand Rapids
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 196 / Route description / Holland to Grand Rapids
caption_attribution_description: English: I-196
context_page_description: Interstate 196 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs for 80.6 miles in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids together. In Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or simply the Ford Freeway, after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives. This name generally refers only to the section between Holland and Grand Rapids. I-196 changes direction; it is signed as a north–south highway from its southern terminus to the junction with US Highway 31 just south of Holland, and as an east–west trunkline from this point to its eastern terminus at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. There are currently three business routes related to the main freeway. There are two business loops and one business spur that serve South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. Another business spur for Muskegon had been designated relative to the I-196 number.
  The current freeway numbered I-196 is the second in the state to bear the number.
context_section_description: On the south side of Holland, the two highways split apart; US 31 separates from I-196 at a partial interchange near the West Michigan Regional Airport (formerly the Tulip City Airport). At this interchange, northbound traffic may follow a left exit to continue on the BL I-196/US 31 freeway or continue along I-196 which turns more eastward; the LMCT departs I-196 at this point as well. Signage along I-196 changes after this interchange. Up to this point, it had been signed north–south, but from the US 31 split onward, the directions are now signed east–west. The freeway passes to the south side of the airport, and it crosses a rail line owned by CSX Transportation and used by Amtrak's Pere Marquette train before curving northeasterly through the interchange with M-40. The freeway crosses into Ottawa County south of the Macatawa River before meeting the other two interchanges for Holland, the second of which is the northern end of the business loop in Zeeland.
  Continuing past Zeeland, I-196 runs more east-northeasterly as it parallels M-121 (Chicago Drive). The freeway passes to the south side of Hudsonville and intersects A-37. About two miles (3.2 km) past Hudsonville, the trunkline has an interchange with M-6, a freeway that runs along the south side of the Grand Rapids area. Just past this interchange, the freeway crosses into Kent County at the Kenowa Avenue overpass. Now in the city of Grandville, I-196 turns northward to run parallel to the county line. The freeway has an interchange for 44th Street, which provides access to the RiverTown Crossings mall and other retail and restaurant establishments in the area. At exit 69, I-196 crosses Chicago Drive and the rail line and turns northeasterly next to Jenison, an unincorporated community opposite the Kent–Ottawa county line. The Ford Freeway name is now prominently used on the freeway signage as I-196 follows a section of the Grand River. Past the interchange for M-11 (28th Street), the freeway crosses into the suburb of Wyoming.
  In Wyoming, the freeway runs along the river, passing Millennium Park on the opposite banks in Walker and Hopewell Indian Mounds Park on the near banks. To the south of the freeway, the business spur for Wyoming and Grand Rapids departs to follow Chicago Drive near an industrial area. After the interchange for Market Avenue, I-196 crosses the Grand River and enters the city of Grand Rapids. The freeway meanders northward past the transmission antennas for radio stations WJRW and WYHA and around the west side of the John Ball Zoological Garden. The trunkline has an interchange with M-45 (Lake Michigan Drive) on the north side of the zoo before I-196 runs downhill turning eastward.
  At the bottom of the hill, I-196 enters the urban core of Grand Rapids. The freeway runs eastward through residential neighborhoods on the city's west side as it approaches the interchange with US 131. This complex structure is adjacent to the Grand River north of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. The carriageways for I-196 run through the interchange on different levels, with the eastbound traffic carried down near river level and the westbound lanes above the crisscrossing carriageways of US 131's freeway. I-196 crosses the river on the opposite side of the interchange and both directions return to the same level. The freeway picks up an additional lane at this point as the median is replaced by a concrete barrier.
  As the freeway runs eastward, it passes the area of Grand Rapids known as the "Medical Mile", a district anchored by the Van Andel Institute, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, a campus of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Butterworth Hospital campus of Spectrum Health. The Ford Freeway jogs slightly to the northeast as it crosses a line of the Grand Rapids Eastern Railroad between College and Eastern avenues. It then passes to the south of the office buildings that house the Kent County Health Department, the Sheriff's Department and the animal shelter. A little over a mile and a quarter (2.0 km) east of those offices
caption: I-196 overpass at 64th Avenue in Hudsonville
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