Interstate 696

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Interstate 696
Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System

Length:

29.24 mi (47 km)

Formed:

First signed: 1962
Completed: 1989

west end:

I-96/I-275/M-5 in Novi

Major
junctions:

US-24/M-10 in Southfield

M-1 in Royal Oak
I-75 in Royal Oak
M-53 in Center Line
M-97 in Warren
M-3 in Roseville

east end:

I-94 in St. Clair Shores

Michigan highways
< I-675		M-1 >

Interstate 696 (abbreviated I-696) is an interstate highway entirely within the U.S. state of Michigan. I-696 is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway. I-696 is a spur route, partially circling the city of Detroit, but travels entirely through Detroit's northern suburbs. It starts by branching off of Interstate 96 at the west end and ends by merging into Interstate 94 on the east end. It has 6–8 lanes for most of its length and is approximately 10 miles north of downtown Detroit. It is a major morning and night-time commute route, bringing many people living west of Detroit into the suburbs north of the city and into downtown Detroit via other Michigan highways such as M-10 ("The Lodge" freeway) and M-39 (The Southfield freeway). Some local residents affectionately call this freeway "The Autobahn of Detroit."

I-696 is part of the original Interstate highway system as outlined in 1956-58, with the first portion opening in 1962, then the eastern third between I-75 and I-94 in early 1979, and the middle portion of I-696 between Telegraph Road and I-75 was completed in December 1989.

The segment of I-696 located between the Mixing Bowl and I-75 is known for its extensive use of retaining walls and three large landscaped caps. As a consequence of those beautification features, explosive flammable cargo are banned on that segment.

As part of the overall rehabilitation to the Mixing Bowl interchange, a new partial interchange at Franklin Road has been constructed. An exit ramp from I-696 eastbound to American Drive opened in April 2006. An entrance ramp from Franklin Road to I-696 westbound opened in July 2006. The Franklin Road overpass re-opened in October 2006.^[1]

I-696's western terminus is also the northern terminus of I-275, making this junction one of the few (perhaps the only) points that is the terminus of two three-digit Interstate Highways with different parents.

Construction of I-696 took much longer than expected and went over budget. The major contributer to this was Pleasant Ridge and the Detroit Zoo lawsuits to stop construction of the freeway. Another was the fact that the eastern end of I-696 was constructed in place of many neighborhoods, many of which were less than 10-15 years in age. In fact, some of the neighborhoods in the Hoover and Van Dyke area were under construction at the same time as the I-696 project which led to confrontations between the two construction projects meaning that it ended up costing more to purchase the land.

For a short time in the 1970s, M-6 was used in place of the on the routing for the segment under construction east of I-75. It was unclear whether the lawsuits would force the center segment to be canceled, which would have left the I-696 freeway discontiguous. M-6 signs were erected on both the frontage roads and the divided road of 11 Mile at Mound Road.