M-90 is a state trunkline highway 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 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 ...

. It runs from near North Branch eastward to Lexington situated on

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

. The highway is a lightly traveled roadway that runs through rural farmlands. The trunkline runs mostly east–west with two short north–south segments where it turns to run concurrently with other state highways. Along the routing, there are two river crossings and one railroad crossing. The current highway that bears the M-90 designation is the second to carry number. The first is now a section of M-69 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 t ...

. A section of current highway gained the number by 1927. Extensions of the highway further east resulted in the current routing by 1934.

Route description

M-90 starts at an intersection with M-24 in Deerfield Township in northern

Lapeer County Lapeer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 88,619. The county seat is Lapeer. The county was created on September 18, 1822, and was fully organized on February 2, 1835. The name ...

. The intersection is near the Lapeer State Game Area. After a short jog northeast to cross the

Flint River The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from the u ...

, it runs due east on North Branch Road through rural farmland. The highway passed through North Branch on its way to M-53 in Burnside Township. There it turns south and runs concurrently with M-53 on Van Dyke Road for about before turning east on Burnside Road. M-90 continues east to pass through

Brown City Brown City is a city in Lapeer and Sanilac counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,325 at the 2010 census. The city is located almost exclusively in Sanilac County, with only a small portion of the city extending into Lape ...

near the Sanilac County line. In Brown City, M-90 follows Main Street and crosses a branch 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 ...

before it becomes Burns Line Road. South of

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 ...

, M-90 turns north along M-19 on Brockway Road. M-90 once again turns east as a solo route on the east side of Peck and follows Peck Road. The trunkline crosses the Black River on the south side of Croswell before ending at

M-25 M25 or M-25 may be: Aerospace * M-25 Dromader Mikro, a variant of the Polish PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader agricultural aircraft * Cors-Air M25Y Black Devil, an Italian aircraft engine * Shvetsov M-25, an aircraft radial engine produced in the Soviet ...

near

in Lexington. None of the highway is listed on the National Highway System, a system of roads that are important to the nation's economy, defense and mobility. The traffic levels, as measured in terms of

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 y ...

, a calculation of the average number of vehicles along a section of roadway for any given day, vary between 1,132 vehicles west of M-53 and 7,029 vehicles in Croswell. 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) also computed the number of commercial vehicles in the 2009 survey and found that the highway was used by 120–163 commercial trucks each day on average.

History

Previous designation

The first designation of M-90 was in the

by July 1, 1919. This highway started at M-45 (now M-95 south of Sagola and ran east to

Foster City Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...

. It was replaced by M-69 by late 1927.

Current designation

M-90 in the Lower Peninsula replaced the M-38 designation between M-36 near North Branch and M-19 near Melvin. In 1930, when M-24 was extended north, M-90 was extended west to intersect the new highway north of Lapeer. The eastern end was extended in 1934 to US Highway 25 in Lexington. The final gravel segment of the highway was paved in 1957 in Sanilac County.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-90
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M090 090 Transportation in Lapeer County, Michigan Transportation in Sanilac County, Michigan