M-48 is an east–west state trunkline highway 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 ...

(UP) of 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 ...

. It connects

Rudyard Rudyard may refer to: Places *Rudyard, Mississippi, United States, an unincorporated community *Rudyard, Montana, United States, a census-designated place *Rudyard Township, Michigan, United States *Rudyard, Staffordshire, England, a village ** Rudy ...

with

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and continues to the far eastern end of the UP. The highway runs for through rural parts of Chippewa County, including along the county line with

Mackinac County Mackinac County ( ) is a county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 10,834. The county seat is St. Ignace. Formerly known as Michilimackinac County, in 1818 it was one of the first ...

. Between 580 and 1,800 vehicles a day use the roadway daily. The highway was designated by 1919 along a route that ran much farther west in the UP. Within its first decade, M-48 was extended to end at a point north of

Newberry Newberry is a surname, a variant of Newbury. Notable people with the surname include: * Booker Newberry III (born 1956), American singer and keyboardist * Brennan Newberry (born, 1990), American professional stock car racing driver * Brian Newb ...

. Since the 1960s, it has had its current configuration. A section of roadway that was previously used as part of the western end of the highway was redesignated as a section H-40 in the 1970s.

Route description

M-48 currently starts at an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75) in the Rudyard area. The highway runs west from the interchange into Rudyard where it turns south, running concurrently with county road H-63. M-48 turns eastward south of town along 22 Mile Road through fields. At Meridian Road, M-48 turns south along M-129 through the community of

. South of town, M-48/M-129 runs long the Chippewa– Mackinac county line and crosses the Munuscong River. M-48 turns east at 26 Mile Road into Chippewa County. The highway zig-zags through rural areas in the southeast of the county. It follows Hanna and 28 Mile roads to Stalwart. In that community, M-48 runs south on Reynolds Road to a corner on the Chippewa–Mackinac county line where the highway turns back east toward the Goetzville area running through the Lake Superior State Forest. After one last north–south segment, M-48 terminates at a junction with M-134 west of DeTour Village near Albany Harbor. 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) maintains M-48 like all other parts of the state trunkline highway system under its jurisdiction. As a part of these responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic along its roads using a metric called

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). This measurement is a calculation of the average traffic levels for a roadway segment on any average day of the year. In 2009, MDOT figured that between 580 and 1,800 vehicles a day used sections of M-48. In addition, the department has added the portion of M-48 between the northern M-129 junction and M-134 to the

Lake Huron Circle Tour The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, St. Lawrence River. It consists of routes for circumnavigating the lakes, either individually or collectively. It was d ...

, a scenic drive that loops around the lake. No part of the highway has been added to the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

On July 1, 1919, M-48 ran from Rexton to Trout Lake and eastward on to Rudyard. The highway continued to Goetzville and ran to DeTour Village at the eastern tip of the UP. By 1927, the western end was moved to a point north of

. M-48 was extended along US Highway 2 (US 2) to

Garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...

. From there, M-48 ran north to M-28 east of Newberry. It turned west along M-28 into Newberry and then north to Four Mile Corner. In the mid-1930s, M-28's routing through the Newberry area was shifted. As a result of this shift, the section of M-28/M-48 in downtown was renumbered M-28A/M-48. In the early 1940s, US 2 was moved to a new routing along the Lake Michigan shoreline. In the process, the US 2/M-48 concurrency was eliminated. By the same time, M-48 was truncated when M-134 was designated east to the DeTour area. By the end of the decade, M-48 was truncated and rerouted on its western end, replacing the contemporary M-117 south of Rexton to US 2 in Epoufette. All of M-48 west of US 2 was turned over to local jurisdiction and removed from the state highway system, save a section made part of M-123 in late 1960 or early 1961. A few years later, M-48 was extended along a former section of US 2 into Rudyard to connect to the newly opened I-75/US 2 freeway in 1963. After October 1970, the former M-48 west of the current highway was designated as a part of the County-Designated Highway System.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-48
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M048 048 Transportation in Chippewa County, Michigan Transportation in Mackinac County, Michigan Lake Huron Circle Tour

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links