M-59 (Michigan highway)
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| M-59 |
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| Maintained by MDOT | |||||||||
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| Length: | 60.5 mi[1] (97.37 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1920 | ||||||||
| West end: |  I-96 in Howell |
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| Major junctions: |
 US 23 near Howell
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| East end: |  I-94 near Mount Clemens |
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| Counties: | Livingston, Oakland, Macomb | ||||||||
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M-59 is an east-west highway that crosses the northern part of Metropolitan Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan. Its western terminus is near Howell at I-96. Its eastern terminus is at I-94 on the Chesterfield Township/Harrison Township line near the Selfridge Air National Guard Base. While primarily a multi-lane surface highway, it is a full freeway from just east of the Pontiac downtown near Opdyke Road to just east of the Mound Road/Merrill Road exit in Utica. From immediately west of US 23 at Hartland, M-59 (westbound), is a two lane roadway (one lane in each direction), for approximately 12 miles to its' western terminus at I-96.
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[edit] Route description
M-59 passes through downtown Pontiac and Utica, and is somewhat of a "main street" in Macomb County, as it is home to a wide variety of shopping and dining including Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights and The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township.
Beginning at the eastern end in Macomb County, the road is known as Hall Road. Then, between Utica and Pontiac, M-59 is a limited-access freeway paralleled by South Boulevard and Auburn Road in part and Auburn Road and Hamlin Road in part. Prior to the building of the freeway Auburn Road served as M-59. After resuming to surface streets, the east and west sides loop around downtown Pontiac before meeting as Huron Road. In the western part of Oakland County, its name changes to Highland Road. The road continues through Livingston County until its western end at I-96 near Howell.
Although it is neither officially designated nor commonly referred to as such, the Hall Road portion of M-59 is coextensive with "20 Mile Road" in the Detroit Mile Road system.
[edit] History
M-59 was first designated in 1920 between then M-10 (now BUS US 24) in Pontiac and M-19 (later U.S. Route 25 and now M-3) in Mt. Clemens. It would be moved to follow Hall Road exclusively on the east end in 1932. The west end was extended in 1936 to end at US 23 in Hartland. The east end was extended again in 1939 along US 25 and over to M-29 in New Baltimore. Another extension on the west end moved M-59 to end at US 16 in Howell in 1959. The east end was rerouted again between Mt. Clemens and New Baltimore over another former alignment of M-29 in 1947. The east end was shorted to M-29 east of US 25/Gratiot Avenue in 1961. The west end was extended with the new BL I-96 in Howell to end at the newly opened I-96 freeway in 1963. The east end was rerouted to end at I-94 in 1964.
M-59 was converted into a freeway starting with the opening on 1966-10-18 of a segment between Pontiac and Rochester. A second segment opened on 1972-12-06 east to Utica. Segments were converted to divided highway in Oakland County. in 1984 through 1986. The east end was reconstructed in 1995-97 and converted to six- to eight-lane divided highway. The freeway was extended east in 1998 to Van Dyke Avenue in Utica.[2]
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[edit] External links
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