Home › Multilingual Archive Index › M-8 (Michigan highway)

M-8 (Michigan highway)

M-8 is a short but important state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan lying within the cities of Detroit and Highland Park. Much of it is the Davison Freeway, the world's first urban depressed freeway, which became a connector between the John C. Lodge (M-10) and Walter P. Chrysler (I-75) freeways.^{[citation needed]}

History

In 1941, what had been Davison Avenue in Detroit was rebuilt into the first urban depressed freeway, opening for traffic on November 24, 1942. The concrete freeway had six lanes without shoulders, separated by a small grass median. This segment, including its original concrete, was essentially left untouched for the next 54 years. In 1968, the freeway was extended eastward a few blocks through a junction with the newly opened I-75 to its present day eastern terminus near Conant Street.

Upon its transfer to state control in 1993 -- it had previously been a county-maintained freeway -- the Davison Freeway was designated as M-8. Three years later, the Davison was closed for a year and a half to reconstruct it to Interstate Highway standards with an additional through travel lane and a wider left shoulder for improved safety and traffic handling as well as a new interchange with Woodward Avenue.

In 2001, M-8 was extended to include the 2 mile segment of Davison Avenue between the freeway's western terminus and Davison Avenue's junction with I-96/Jeffries Freeway. Except for a M-8 shield on the Lodge Freeway's Davison Avenue exit signs, the non-freeway portion of M-8 remains unsigned, including at the Davison Avenue exit from the Jeffries^(img) where new Clearview signs were erected as part of a massive 2005 I-96 reconstruction project.

Notes

• As metro Detroit's freeway system developed in the 1960s, an extension of the Davison freeway was intended to connect the Jeffries freeway (at the time planned to run parallel with Grand River Avenue into Farmington) with a southerly extension of the M-53 freeway via Mound Road. Even after the Jeffries was realigned to an east-west route overlaying Schoolcraft Avenue, the Davison expansion plan continued, and the Jeffries interchange with Davison was designed and built to be a freeway-to-freeway connection. With the same master plan in mind, a massive stack interchange was constructed at Mound Road and I-696 in Warren. However, in the early 1970's, the city of Detroit blocked further freeway development; leaving both interchanges with only a pittance of the traffic flow they were designed to handle.

• The freeway portion of M-8 is virtually always referred to as the Davison Freeway, or just "the Davison," rather than by route number.

• The original concrete road surface of the Davison Freeway was exceptionally hard and dense - sections of roadway were 'diked' during construction and the concrete was poured under water in the diked areas, the water covering giving the concrete exceptional strength as it cured.

• Before its total reconstruction in 1996-1997, there was talk of filling it in and returning it to its pre-freeway status as Davison Avenue.

• There were concrete stairs leading down to the edge of the non-shouldered freeway for Davison bus route passengers to board/unboard, that ended during the 70's.

Exit list

The entire route is in Wayne County.

References

External links

• Photos of the Davison Freeway construction and opening