Skip to main content

M-153

By


M-153 is a 25.127-mile State Trunkline located in southeast Michigan.  The highway begins at US Route 12 (Michigan Avenue) at the Detroit city limit and largely follows Ford Road west to M-14 in Washtenaw County.  M-153 was designated as a State Trunkline during December 1930.  The corridor at the time was constructed to Canton Center Road and was planned to be extended to the vicinity of Jackson.  The Trunkline was constructed to US Route 12 at Plymouth Road in 1934 and the extension to Jackson was cancelled in 1935.  Numerous improvements to M-153 occurred through the remainder of the 20th century as it became an increasingly traveled urban surface highway.  




Part 1; the history of M-153

M-153 between Wyoming Road at the Detroit city limit is carried via Ford Road just west of Frazier Lake Road.  The corridor is named in honor Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford's father William.  

William Ford settled at what is now the corner of Ford Road and Greenfield Road circa 1847 in Dearborn Township.  William Ford was a well-known public servant who served as a road commissioner, justice of the peace and school board member.   The corridor was ultimately named Ford Road in his honor during 1905. 

When Ford Road was named, the corridor extended from Weir Street/McGraw Avenue west to Canton Center Road in Canton Township.  The western terminus of Ford Road can be seen on the 1905 United States Geological Survey Map of Wayne.  


M-153 was designated as a 47.4-mile-long State Trunkline on December 2, 1930.    M-153 was part of the proposed "Detroit-Chicago Superhighway" which was planned to be largely constructed on a new alignment west of Canton Center Road.  As originally adopted the Trunkline began at then US Route 112 (Michigan Avenue) at the Detroit/Dearborn city limit.  The highway followed Wyoming Avenue and Ford Road to a western terminus at Canton Center Road.  The planned corridor west of Canton Center Road passed through Ann Arbor and Sylvan where it would have ended at Michigan Avenue (US Route 12) near the eastern city limit of Jackson. 

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

The original western terminus of M-153 at Canton Center Road can be seen on the 1934 Rand McNally Junior Map of Michigan.  


By Summer 1933 M-153 was extended west to Napier Road at the Wayne/Washtenaw County line.  By July 1934 the Trunkline was extended west to US Route 12 at Plymouth Road in Washtenaw County.  The western extension beyond Plymouth Road was cancelled by the State on January 7, 1935.  

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

M-153 appears complete between US Route 112 and US Route 12 on the 1939 Rand McNally Map of Michigan.  


On March 31, 1965, the M-14 freeway from US Route 23 east to M-153 was established as a functional Trunkline.  The new corridor was developed concurrently with an expressway grade which realigned M-153 west of Frains Lake Road to Plymouth Road and the new M-14 freeway.  A portion of M-153 along Ford Road between the new alignment to where it originally met Plymouth Road was relinquished to the county. 

(Source: michiganhighways.org)

The extension of M-153 to Plymouth Road and the M-14 freeway can be seen on the 1965 United States Geological Survey Map of Eastern Ann Arbor.  M-153 and M-14 may have been signed via a multiplex west of Plymouth Road.  


By December 1973 M-153 between Artesian Street/Auto Club Drive west to Golfview Drive was reconstructed to freeway standards.  An un-signed portion of the original highway was renamed as Altar Road and was not relinquished until January 1985.  By February 1980 the eastern extension of the M-14 freeway would open which led to M-153 formally being extended west of Plymouth Road.  

(Source: michiganhighways.org)



Part 2; a drive on western M-153

M-153 can be accessed from Interstate 275 Exit 25 to Ford Road.  




Westbound M-153 passes through Canton Township via Ford Road.  At the Township edge the Trunkline passes the original terminus of Canton Center Road.  



Westbound M-153 enters Washtenaw County and drops to two lanes.  The highway expands again to four lanes approaching a bypassed segment of Ford Road near Frains Lake Road.  










M-153 intersects the original alignment of US Route 12 at Plymouth Road.  M-14 was designated over the Plymouth Road corridor during 1956.  US Route 12 was originally moved to the initial freeway segments comprising Interstate 94.  Ultimately the highway was relocated onto what was US Route 112 in between Detroit and New Buffalo in 1961.  





The western terminus of M-153 is located at the M-14 freeway.  



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l
3 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Route 75 Tunnel - Ironton, Ohio

By
In the Ohio River community of Ironton, Ohio, there is a former road tunnel that has a haunted legend to it. This tunnel was formerly numbered OH 75 (hence the name Route 75 Tunnel), which was renumbered as OH 93 due to I-75 being built in the state. Built in 1866, it is 165 feet long and once served as the northern entrance into Ironton, originally for horses and buggies and later for cars. As the tunnel predated the motor vehicle era, it was too narrow for cars to be traveling in both directions. But once US 52 was built in the area, OH 93 was realigned to go around the tunnel instead of through the tunnel, so the tunnel was closed to traffic in 1960. The legend of the haunted tunnel states that since there were so many accidents that took place inside the tunnel's narrow walls, the tunnel was cursed. The haunted legend states that there was an accident between a tanker truck and a school bus coming home after a high school football game on a cold, foggy Halloween night in 1
Post a Comment
Read more