U.S. Route 31 in Michigan

US Highway 31 is a state trunkline highway that runs from the Indiana–Michigan state line at Bertrand Township north to its terminus at Interstate 75 south of Mackinaw City. The entire length of the highway is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the US’s economy, defense, and mobility. It is the only highway in Michigan that is not part of the U.S. Numbered Highway System (US NHS)

About U.S. Route 31 in Michigan in brief

Summary U.S. Route 31 in MichiganUS Highway 31 is a state trunkline highway that runs from the Indiana–Michigan state line at Bertrand Township north to its terminus at Interstate 75 south of Mackinaw City. Along its 356. 5-mile-long route, US 31 follows the Michigan section of the St. Joseph Valley Parkway as well as other freeways and divided highways northward to Ludington. North of there, the trunkline is a rural undivided highway through the Northern Michigan tourist destinations of Traverse City and Petoskey. The entire length of the highway is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the US’s economy, defense, and mobility. The first highways along the route were the West Michigan Pike, an auto trail from 1913, and later a pair of state trunklines in 1919. These state highways were redesignated US-31 on November 11, 1926, when the US Highway System was approved. Since then, the highway has been realigned in places, and sections were converted into freeways starting in the 1950s. The highway crossed the Straits of Mackinsac by ferry for about a decade in the 1920s and 1930s before the Mackinac Bridge was built, connecting to US 2 north of St. Ignace. It continues northward in rural Berrien County through farm fields. The trunkline crosses the Lake Michigan shoreline and runs roughly several miles parallel to the inland side of the lake.

At the northern terminus, I-196US 31 crosses into Van Buren County and assumes the name Gerald R. Ford Freeway. The freeway parallels the forested side of Lake Michigan inland side while the forest side is the lake side side of forested R-63 Freeway, which is the former road that is now the former route of LM-63. The remainder of US 30 is a two- or four-lane highway with some sections in cities comprising five lanes. It runs north from I-94 and passes to the west of the Point O’Woods Golf & Country Country Course near Berrien Springs, Michigan. Future plans by the Michigan Department of Transportation are to finish the St Joseph Valley Parkway and bypass Grand Haven. It also turnswesterly near Paw Paw near the Paw Paw River and turns northeasterly near Lake Michigan Country Country Golf Course and turns northward near Lake Chapin. It ends at the terminus of I-75 at M-63 at the northern terminus of M-7, and the freeway joins the LMCT for the first time at LMCT 7, where it joins the freeway for the last time at the exit for LMCT-7. It is the only highway in Michigan that is not part of the U.S. Numbered Highway System (US NHS) The highway is part of a network that includes the Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas highways.