M-19 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the US state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The trunkline begins northeast of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

at a junction with

Interstate 94 Interstate 94 (I-94) is an east–west Interstate Highway connecting the Great Lakes and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. Its western terminus is just east of Billings, Montana, at a junction with I-90; its eastern ter ...

(I-94) near

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

and runs northward to a junction with M-142 just east of Bad Axe in

The Thumb The Thumb is a region and a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, so named because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Thumb area is generally considered to be in the Central Michigan region, east of the Tri-Cities and north of M ...

region of the

Lower Peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

. The highway runs through mostly rural and agricultural areas, connecting several small communities. Dating back to the original signposting of the state highway system, M-19 initially connected Detroit with

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

and Port Austin in 1919. In late 1926, the routing was altered to shorten it to Bad Axe on the north and

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

on the south. Additional changes in the 1950s and 1960s updated the highway to finish paving the roadway and extend it southward to its present terminus.

Route description

M-19 begins at a junction with I-94 near New Haven at the interchange for exit 247. The highway runs to the northwest along New Haven Road into town where it turns northeasterly on Gratiot Avenue to run parallel to I-94. Outside of New Haven, the landscape along the highway is composed of mostly farm fields on the way to

. Once the trunkline enters that city, it turns northwesterly and then northward along Main Street before exiting town. Continuing north, M-19 travels through mostly rural areas and agricultural fields and continues as such, through the community of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

. The trunkline crosses out of

Macomb County Macomb County ( ) is a county located in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Michigan, bordering Lake St. Clair, and is part of northern Metro Detroit. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 881,217, making it the third-most populous co ...

into St. Clair County in the middle of town. M-19 crosses the Belle River and continues to a junction with

I-69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

at exit 184, about west of

. From here the route continues north, passing through the small, rural community of Emmett, where M-19 crosses a branch line of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

that also carries

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Blue Water Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water. Definitions The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...

'' passenger route. North of Emmett, M-19 runs through farm fields at the base of The Thumb to Brockway, where it crosses Mill Creek and has a junction with M-136. North of Brockway the road jogs to the west passing east of the

Yale Airport Yale Airport is a public-use airport located one nautical mile (1.85 km) southeast of the central business district of Yale, a city in St. Clair County, Michigan, United States. Facilities and aircraft Yale Airport covers an area of at ...

, a small grass landing strip just southeast of the city of

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. The trunkline passes through Yale where it serves as Main Street in the small community. North of town, the surroundings open up into agricultural fields once again as the road continues its trek northward, crossing into Sanilac County. Across the county line, M-19 passes through small rural communities such as

Peck A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 dry gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints. An imperial peck is equivalent to 9.09 liters and a US customary peck is equivalent to 8.81 liters. Two pecks mak ...

and

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

. About north of Yale, the road approaches the city of Sandusky, the county seat of Sanilac County. The road runs through residential areas into the center of town. Once downtown, the highway meets M-46; M-19 turns west, to follow M-46, running concurrently for about . After the two trunklines separate in

Elmer Elmer is a name of Germanic British origin. The given name originated as a surname, a medieval variant of the given name Aylmer, derived from Old English ''æþel'' (noble) and ''mær'' (famous). It was adopted as a given name in the United State ...

, M-19 heads back northward as it enters rural and agricultural areas again. The highway heads due north for the next passing through Argyle. M-19 crosses into Huron County south of Ubly. In that community, the highway crosses a branch line of the

Huron and Eastern Railway Huron and Eastern Railway is a short line railroad operating of track in The Thumb and Flint/Tri-Cities area of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is currently owned by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., who purchased it from RailAmerica in 2012. Its ...

. At a junction northeast of the Huron County Memorial Airport, M-19 reaches its northern terminus at M-142 just east of the city of Bad Axe. M-19 is maintained by 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-19 were the 19,737 vehicles daily south in Richmond; the lowest counts were the 1,482 vehicles per day in Emmett. No section of M-19 has been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

When the state's highway system was initially signed in 1919, M-19 was signposted from

northeasterly to

before turning westward to run concurrently along

M-21 M21 or M-21 may refer to: Transportation * M21 (New York City bus), a New York City Bus route in Manhattan * M-21 highway (Michigan), a road connecting Flint and Grand Rapids * M21 (East London), a Metropolitan Route in East London, South Africa ...

and curving northerly to run to Bad Axe. From there it continued on to a terminus in Port Austin. When the

United States Numbered 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 hi ...

was approved on November 11, 1926, the southernmost segment from Detroit to Port Huron was assigned to the then-new US Highway 25 (US 25). M-19 was removed from M-21 and realigned from Yale southward through Emmet to connect to US 25 in Richmond. The northern end was truncated to end to the east of Bad Axe. In 1956, a realignment of M-90 shortened the concurrency of that highway with M-19. By the middle of 1960, the last segment of the highway was paved between Elmer and Argyle. When US 25 was moved to follow a completed segment of the I-94 freeway in 1963, M-19 was extended southerly along Gratiot Avenue from Richmond to New Haven and on to the freeway.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-19
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M019

019 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

Transportation in Macomb County, Michigan Transportation in St. Clair County, Michigan Transportation in Sanilac County, Michigan Transportation in Huron County, Michigan

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links