M-57 is an east–west 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 ...

. The highway connects US Highway 131 (US 131) near Rockford on the west end to M-15 near Otisville in 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 ...

. In between, the mostly rural highway passes through farmland and connects several highways and smaller towns together. Three of these highways are freeways: US 131, US 127 and

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...

(I-75). Along the way, between 3,700 and 22,300 vehicles use the highway daily. The current highway that bears the M-57 moniker is the second to do so. The first is now M-75 in the

Northern Lower Peninsula Northern Michigan, also known as Northern Lower Michigan (known colloquially to residents of more southerly parts of the state and summer residents from cities such as Detroit as " Up North"), is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. A popula ...

. This second highway was designated in the 1930s along a different, but parallel, routing. The first major changes shifted that routing southward to the current corridor in stages. Through additional extensions and truncations, the modern routing was formed by the 1970s.

Route description

M-57 is a rural, two-lane highway crossing the south central Lower Peninsula. The western terminus is at US 131, north of Grand Rapids near Rockford in northern Kent County. East of the terminus is Rosie's Diner, which is the original shooting location for the Bounty Paper Towel commercials of the 1970s featuring Rosie the Waitress. The diner was moved from

Little Ferry, New Jersey Little Ferry is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,626,Montcalm County. East of the county line, the highway follows Carson City Road into the outskirts of Greenville. M-57 runs through a retail corridor before becoming Washington Street in town where it meets M-91. Washington Street crosses the Flat River and exits Greenville. Continuing eastward, the trunkline passes through more farmland on Carson City Road. It meets M-66 at a rural four-way intersection before passing into

Carson City Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the ...

near the Gratiot county line. M-57 follows Cleveland Road, passing to the south of the communities of Middleton and Perrinton. Near Pompeii, M-57 meets US 127 at a folded diamond interchange along the expressway portion of the latter highway. Cleveland Road continues east running near

Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...

and into

Saginaw County Saginaw County, officially the County of Saginaw, is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 190,124. The county seat is Saginaw. The county was created by September 10, 1822, and was fully orga ...

. In between Ashley and the county line, the highway crosses a branch of the

Great Lakes Central Railroad The Great Lakes Central Railroad is an American Class II regional railroad, operating in the state of Michigan. It was originally called the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway , which was formed on August 26, 1977, to operate over former Penn Cen ...

. M-57 follows Brady Road and crosses M-52 just west of Chesaning. Further east, the trunkline crosses another line of the Great Lakes Central. The highway follows Broad Street into town and over the

Shiawassee River The Shiawassee River ( ) in the U.S. state of Michigan drains an area of within Oakland, Genesee, Livingston, Shiawassee, Midland and Saginaw counties. It flows in a generally northerly direction for approximately from its source to its co ...

. On the east banks, M-57 runs along Main Street south along the river to a junction with Peet Road where it then turns east along the latter road out of town. The highway passes through more farm fields and through Layton Corners on the way to a junction with

M-13 M13, M-13 or M13 may refer to: Military * Fiat M13/40, an Italian tank used in World War II * M13 Half-track, a U.S. anti-aircraft gun used in World War II * M13 link, a machine gun's ammunition link * M-13 rocket, a version of the Soviet World War ...

on the Saginaw–

Genesee Genesee, derived from the Seneca word for "pleasant valley", may refer to: Geographic features Canada *Genesee, Alberta, an unincorporated community United States *Genesee, California *Genesee, Colorado *Genesee County, Michigan *Genesee Co ...

county line. At Montrose, M-57 crosses the Flint River, and a 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 ...

. Now running along Vienna Road, the trunkline meets I-75/ US 23 west of

Clio In Greek mythology, Clio ( , ; el, Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre playing. Etymology Clio's name is etymologically derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλεί ...

. As it enters town, it crosses a line of the Saginaw Bay Southern Railway. This segment of the highway passes through the northernmost suburbs of

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

, and this section is where the heaviest traffic levels along the whole highway are found. As part of its maintenance duties, 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) tracks these traffic levels using a metric known as

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 figure is a calculation of the average traffic volume for a segment of roadway on any average day of the year. In 2009, MDOT determined that an average of 22,280 vehicles used the section of M-57 through Clio daily. East of this area, the highway once again passes through rural agricultural lands on the way to its eastern terminus at M-15, one mile (1.6 km) north of Otisville. This terminal section of the trunkline had the lowest traffic levels in 2009 at 3,737 vehicles AADT. No section of M-57 has been listed on the National Highway System, a system of roadways important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

Previous designations

In 1919, the

Michigan State Highway Department 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 ...

signposted the highway system in the state for the first time. At that time, M-57 designation was originally used in Charlevoix County from Boyne Falls at

(now US 131) through Boyne City and back to then M-13. That highway's number was changed to M-75 in 1926. By the next year, the number was then assigned to a state trunkline that connected between Quinnesec and the

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

state line 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 ...

. This second iteration was short-lived as it was replaced by an extension of US 141 into Michigan.

Current designation

In 1930, M-57 was designated from M-66 (now M-91) near Langston to M-47 (now M-52) in St. Charles. By the mid 1936, the section between Ithaca and St. Charles was removed from the state highway system when the designation was shifted south to run between Ashley and Chesaning. In the process, M-57 was run concurrently along US 27 between Ithaca and Ashley. The western section was similarly shifting by May 1938. The new routing started at a junction with US 131 between Rockford and Cedar Springs and continued through Greenville and Carson City to Ashley. The eastern end was also extended from Chesaning to the Clio area. It was extended a second time by early 1941 to a junction with Belsay Road. By the middle of 1946, the eastern end was extended a third time to end in Otisville. M-57 was lengthened after a western extension in late 1948 or early 1949. The highway was routed concurrently with US 131 to Cedar Springs and then west to M-37 at Kent City. A new routing on the eastern end was designated in late 1956 or early 1957; this routing shifted the eastern terminus out of Otisville to its current location. The last gravel section of highway was paved near Fenmore by the Gratiot–Saginaw county line in the late 1950s. The last change to M-57's routing came in 1973. Then-Congressman

Gerald R. Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

opened a section of US 131 freeway on September 21. The freeway ran between the two M-57 junctions along US 131 near Rockford and Cedar Springs. Afterwards, M-57 was truncated to the Rockford area, and the segment previously part of M-57 between Kent City and Cedar Springs was made part of M-46 afterwards.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-57
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M057 057 Transportation in Kent County, Michigan Transportation in Montcalm County, Michigan Transportation in Gratiot County, Michigan Transportation in Saginaw County, Michigan Transportation in Genesee County, Michigan