 Interstate 196 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 I-196 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Auxiliary route of I-96 | ||||
| Maintained by MDOT | ||||
| Length | 80.594 mi[1] (129.703 km) | |||
| Existed | 1963[2]–present | |||
| Tourist routes | ||||
| NHS | Entire route | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |   I-94 / US 31 near Benton Harbor | |||
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| East end |   I-96 / M-37 near Grand Rapids | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Michigan | |||
| Counties | Berrien, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, Kent | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs for 80.6 miles (129.7 km) in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids. In Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or simply the Ford Freeway, after President Gerald Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives for 25 years. This name generally refers only to the section between Holland and Grand Rapids. I-196 changes direction; it is signed as a north–south highway from its southern terminus to the junction with US Highway 31 (US 31) just south of Holland, and as an east–west trunkline from this point to its eastern terminus at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. There are three business routes related to the main freeway. There are two business loops (BL I-196) and one business spur (BS I-196) that serve South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. Another business spur for Muskegon had been designated relative to the I-196 number.
The freeway numbered I-196 is the second in the state to bear the number. Originally to be numbered as part of the I-94 corridor in the state, the Benton Harbor–Grand Rapids freeway was given the I-96 number in the 1950s while another Interstate between Muskegon and Grand Rapids was numbered I-196. That I-196 was built in the late 1950s and completed in the early 1960s. The first segment of the current I-196 was opened as I-96 near Benton Harbor in 1962. Michigan officials requested a change in 1963 which reversed the two numbers, and the subsequent segments of freeway opened northward to Holland and from Grand Rapids westward under the current number. The gap between Holland and Grandville was filled in the 1970s, and a section of freeway that runs through downtown Grand Rapids was rebuilt as a wider freeway in 2010.