M-11 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan in the

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

metropolitan area. The highway runs through the western and southern sides of the metro area, starting over the border in Ottawa County at an interchange with

Interstate 96 Interstate 96 (I-96) is an east–west Interstate Highway that runs for approximately entirely within the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The western terminus is at an interchange with US Highway 31 (US 31) and Bu ...

(I-96). It runs through both rural woodlands and busy commercial areas before it terminates at another interchange with I-96 in Cascade Township. Locally known as Wilson Avenue and 28th Street, the trunkline is listed on the National Highway System. M-11 carries between 8,000 and 42,000 vehicles on average each day. When the original state trunklines were designated, an M-11 ran the length of the

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

shoreline from the Indiana state line to

Mackinaw City Mackinaw City ( ) is a village in Emmet and Cheboygan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 846 at the 2010 census, the population increases during summertime, including an influx of tourists and seasonal workers who serve ...

. That highway was replaced in 1926 by two of the then-newly created US Highways. A second highway was given the M-11 designation at that time in the Saline area. This highway was removed from the highway system and the designation decommissioned in 1954. The current M-11 was designated in 1961 along a set of roads in the Grand Rapids area that includes portions of a former route of

US Highway 16 U.S. Route 16 (US 16) is an east–west United States Highway between Rapid City, South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The highway's eastern terminus is at a junction with Interstate 90/U.S. Route 14 (I-90/US 14), conc ...

(US 16) in Michigan.

Route description

The western terminus is at exit 24 on I-96, one mile (1.6 km) east of

Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...

. In Ottawa County, the road is called Ironwood Drive. Beginning at the Kent County border, the street is called Remembrance Road (in honor of those who died in battle). From its western terminus, the road angles southeast–northwest for about a mile and a half (2.4 km). Then M-11 turns south on Wilson Avenue to run north–south through Walker. Wilson Avenue intersects M-45 (Lake Michigan Drive) in the Standale Business District. South of Lake Michigan Drive, the trunkline continues on Wilson Avenue through the edge of a rural area. The highway runs through forest land near

Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center nea ...

until it crosses the Grand River at I-196. 28th Street Wyoming Michigan

Past I-196, M-11 curves to run east–west and becomes 28th Street. Wilson continues southwards as a local road and 28th Street is the route through Grandville and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

Chicago Drive M-121 is a state trunkline highway in West Michigan. The highway follows Chicago Drive, a local roadway, from Zeeland to Grandville. Chicago Drive itself runs past the M-121 segment on either side from Holland to Wyoming. The roadway passes th ...

runs under 28th Street in Grandville; there is a ramp from eastbound Chicago Drive to eastbound 28th Street, but all other connections are through the "28th Street Cutoff" to the east of the grade-separated junction. Continuing eastward through Wyoming, M-11 passes through that city's central business district. The highway intersects US Highway 131 and crosses into

at Division Avenue. Near Kalamazoo Avenue, 28th Street passes the Indian Hills Golf Course. From Breton Avenue eastward, 28th Street is dominated by retail establishments as it continues into Kentwood. M-11 meets an intersection with East Beltline Avenue near the

Woodland Mall Woodland Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall located in Kentwood, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids. It comprises over 100 tenants in of retail space, with three anchor stores (Macy's, JCPenney, and Von Maur), along with Barnes ...

. East Beltline carries M-37 through the eastern side of the Grand Rapids metro area. M-11 continues eastward to its terminus at exit 44 on I-96 while 28th Street continues farther east to Cascade Road. M-11 is maintained by the

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate ...

(MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2010 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-11 were the 41,214 vehicles daily between Kalamazoo and Breton avenues in Grand Rapids; the lowest counts were the 8,153 vehicles per day in Ottawa County. All of M-11 has been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

Previous designations

The first M-11 originally ran along Lake Michigan between the Indiana state line near New Buffalo and Mackinaw City on July 1, 1919. On November 11, 1926, the New Buffalo–

Benton Harbor Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...

segment was used for US 12 and the Watervliet–Mackinaw City section was used for US 31; between Benton Harbor and Watervliet, M-11 was used for a

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

US 12/US 31. Streets are still designated as Old M-11 in places such as Chikaming Township. Immediately after the debut of the

U.S. Highway System The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

in 1926, M-11 was designated from M-50 at

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

to US 112 in Saline. The last section of this highway was fully paved between Bridgewater and Saline in late 1948 or early 1949. In the middle of 1954, M-92 was extended southward from

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. From there, that highway replaced M-11 west to Bridgewater before turning south to Clinton; at the same time, the remainder of M-11 was removed from the state highway system and the designation was decommissioned.

Current designation

The current M-11 was known as Beales Road in the early 1900s and was a sandy road placed over hills where it ended just west of Byron Center Avenue at

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...

s. The modern highway was added to the state highway system as a component of M-114 . By 1942, the trunkline was completed and reassigned a Bypass US 16 designation, until the mainline US 16 was rerouted over the bypass in 1953. In the latter half of 1961, the M-11 designation was first assigned in the Grand Rapids area along the current routing when US 16 was moved to the newly opened I-96 freeway. The routing has remained unchanged since.

Memorial designations

The current M-11 follows Remembrance Road, Wilson Avenue and 28th Street. The first two of these names were chosen to memorialize the roadway in honor of local people. Remembrance Road was dedicated in 1923 on the initiative of the local chapter of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

. They planted 231

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

s in a double row on each side of the highway and erected a boulder bearing a bronze plaque dedicated to the veterans of Kent County. Wilson Avenue was named for Samuel H. Wilson, a local realtor. He had developed a series of local residential subdivisions in the area up until his 1931 death, In 1942, the county road commission named Wilson Avenue in his honor to comply with a state law requiring roads that benefitted from state funds to have proper names.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-11
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M011 011 Transportation in Ottawa County, Michigan Transportation in Kent County, Michigan U.S. Route 16