M-186 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Entirely within Fife Lake Township, in southeastern Grand Traverse County, the highway serves as a short connector between M-113 near

Kingsley Kingsley may refer to: People * Kingsley (given name) * Kingsley (surname) Places Australia * Kingsley, Western Australia Canada * Rural Municipality of Kingsley No. 124, Saskatchewan England * Kingsley, Cheshire * Kingsley, Hampshire *Kingsley ...

and US Highway 131 (US 131) at the village of Fife Lake. The current incarnation of M-186 is the second usage of the designation, as it was originally used for a highway in Delta County in the 1930s.

Route description

M-186 forms an easterly extension of M-113 from

to Fife Lake. The highway starts south of a 90-degree curve in M-113 and runs east through flat, wooded terrain to Fife Lake. The roadway runs parallel to the survey section lines in Fife Lake Township, and it passes several residences along the whole length. From the eastern terminus, State Street connects M-186 and US 131 with downtown Fife Lake. M-186 Sign near Fife Lake

In 2007, the

average annual 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 ...

(AADT) surveys conducted 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 Interstat ...

(MDOT) showed that 2,100 vehicles used M-186. M-113 west of M-186 logged an average of 7,800 vehicles a day north of the junction and 4,400 vehicles south of the junction. On the east end, US 131 carried 5,100 vehicles north and 4,800 vehicles south of the junction in Fife Lake. Of the 2,100 vehicles on M-186, only 140 trucks travelled the highway each day on average.

History

Previous designation

In the 1930s, M-186 was previously designated on a

connector route A connector is a highway or freeway road that connects to another highway or freeway. It can be part of an interchange such as the MacArthur Maze or a longer roadway such as the Interstate 635. A connector route is a type of special route or su ...

in the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

between US 2/ US 41 at Rapid River and M-35 near

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it ...

. This designation existed from 1932 until July 26, 1939, forming a route for westbound US 2 traffic to access M-35 northbound towards Gwinn and Negaunee.

Current designation

In 1940, US 131 ended at a three-way convergence with M-113 and M-131 four miles (6 km) north of Walton Junction in Paradise Township. From this intersection, US 131 ran south to Walton Junction, M-113 ran west to Kingsley, and M-131 ran east toward Fife Lake before turning north to Petoskey. A new alignment of US 131 was built from Walton Junction directly to Fife Lake. This formed a third leg of a triangle of roads, allowing US 131 to bypass the Paradise Township intersection. US 131 replaced M-131 north from Fife Lake to Petoskey. M-113 was extended along the former section of US 131 south to Walton Junction. The remaining leg of the triangle from Paradise Township to Fife Lake along a portion of the former M-131 was designated M-186 at this time. In 2017, MDOT announced plans to build a roundabout at the eastern terminus of M-186 at US-131. This is the result of many crashes at this intersection (nearly 80 from 2007 to 2017), many of which because of low visibility. The project was supposed to be started and completed in the first half of 2019, although the project was finished in late July of that year.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-186 at Michigan Highways
{{DEFAULTSORT:M186 186 Transportation in Grand Traverse County, Michigan