I-696 Location Alternatives - What Could Have Been

I got my hands on a 1963 Michigan State Highway Department publication titled, "A Planning and Engineering Analysis of the Location and Design Alternatives Considered; Interstate 696".

The book details the most serious alternative contenders, which included an "11 Mile Alignment" and a "10 Mile Alignment". What we ultimately got was a blend of both. This was done in order to avoid existing commerce areas.

I'm going to post some images from the book, some highlights of what could have been.

Let's start with the "11 Mile Alignment" and how I-696 could have intersected with I-75. The picture from the book below shows a residential neighborhood in Royal Oak and Madison Heights just north of 11 Mile centered on Stephenson Highway.

Note the left-hand exit and entrance within the interchange and how it's not a traditional four level stack level stack like we have today.

From the book: [[Full Resolution Click Here)
Attachment 24650

What exists today: [[Click here for map)
Attachment 24651


I also found it interesting that the book reference "DeQuindre" road many times. Does anyone know if it was actually spelled with a capital 'Q'? And if so, when did we change it to a lower-case 'q'?

If folks find this stuff interesting, I'll post more from the book.

Quindre :

http://www.mytrees.com/ancestry/Mich...1929-8551.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=mp4...chigan&f=false

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Originally Posted by Willi

Quindre :

http://www.mytrees.com/ancestry/Mich...1929-8551.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=mp4...chigan&f=false

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Thanks! A possible origin for the road. I just find it interesting that the spelling has changed in the last 50 years. I wonder if there was some kind of official switch-over to the new spelling, or was it just kind of organic and people start spelling it without a capital 'Q' because they always saw it as all caps on the street sign.

696 was only built after a huge protracted fight of several years duration over those very alignments. Different municipalities, different constituencies, and different commercial groups all had their reasons why it couldn't go down one or another Mile Rd. And then there was the wetlands, the zoo, the orthodox Jewish community, etc. I remember the rancorous debates in Oakland and Macomb County politics.

In the end it was kind of amazing it got built at all. 696 was, of course, the last major expressway project in this area. A few years later, after the public tide had turned decisively against freeway construction [[at least freeway construction anywhere near them), and it might never have been built at all.

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

696 was only built after a huge protracted fight of several years duration over those very alignments. Different municipalities, different constituencies, and different commercial groups all had their reasons why it couldn't go down one or another Mile Rd. And then there was the wetlands, the zoo, the orthodox Jewish community, etc. I remember the rancorous debates in Oakland and Macomb County politics.

In the end it was kind of amazing it got built at all. 696 was, of course, the last major expressway project in this area. A few years later, after the public tide had turned decisively against freeway construction [[at least freeway construction anywhere near them), and it might never have been built at all.

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I thought 275 was built after 696?

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Originally Posted by iheartthed

I thought 275 was built after 696?

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I believe the last portion of 696 [[the part through Royal Oak and the like) was built well after 275.

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Originally Posted by Bham1982

I believe the last portion of 696 [[the part through Royal Oak and the like) was built well after 275.

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I remember the first time I rode on 696 was 1989. It seemed newly completed.

Boy, and where would we be without 696?

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Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I remember the first time I rode on 696 was 1989. It seemed newly completed.

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This was because the portion of I-696 between I-75 and M-10 opened in December 1989, while I-275 was completed in 1977.

EDIT: 48307, when you have time, you can download JOSM [[a program intended to be an external Openstreetmap editor), download areas along the alignments proposed in the book from the OSM server onto the program, recreate what the book shows, not upload the results onto the OSM server and post screenshots.

Well that alignment would've been a disaster.

That isn't a true 11 mile alignment, its more like an 11 1/4 alignment. Interesting as that would've probably decimated many neighborhoods in Royal Oak.

Plus that interchange would've never worked with today's traffic volume. All those silly left-hand ramps and curves seemed good in theory, but would be terrible in reality.

I remember as a kid driving with my parents to their friends house in Warren... this was circa 1964... and I vividly remember that 2 lane 11 Mile road was devoid of houses anywhere near the street. It looked like there were wide weed filled fields on either side of 11 Mile Rd., with homes and subdivisions quite some distance from 11 Mile.

So the eastern end of I-696 was already cast in stone via home and business removal by the mid 1960s.

One of the alignments would have virtually wiped out the city of Pleasant Ridge.

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Originally Posted by DTWflyer

Interesting as that would've probably decimated many neighborhoods in Royal Oak.

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The actual interchange that was built, along with many parts of I-696 decimated many neighborhoods. The present day I-75\I-696 interchange was a completely built out neighborhood.

What Could Have Been - Downtown Berkley, Oak Park, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, and Pleasant Ridge

The below map includes both the "10 Mile Alternative" and the "11 Mile Alternative" with several sub-alternatives.

Some things of note in this map:

- Two 11 Mile sub-alternatives go around 11 Mile between Greenfield and Coolidge.
- The 11 Mile Alternative has I-696 interchanging with Woodward at 11 1/4 Mile.
- There is a ruled-out 10 Mile sub-alternative [[the short-dash line) that would have cut away a good chunk of the zoo.
- The 11 Mile Alternative at 696 and Woodward included an interchange with ramps for NB to WB and WB to NB

10 Mile and 11 Mile Alternatives from Greenfield to Campbell: [[Click here for larger image)
Attachment 24659

I-696 11 Mile Alternative at Woodward: [[Click here for larger image)
Attachment 24660

Interesting thread, thanks for posting this.


My grandparents lived at the corner of Connecticut and University in Royal Oak for 74 years. That would be just to the left of this map. This alternate plan would have put their house in the middle of the freeway. Our family would have had a different life experience for sure. Crazy.

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Originally Posted by nain rouge

Boy, and where would we be without 696?

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Without a daily headache from 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm? 696 is the worst, especially for the amount of commuter traffic it dumps on I-75 during rush hour. I really detest 696, but understand that it has its purpose. It's funny because the most use that I get out of 696 is going from I-75 to Woodward. I used to take it to an ex's place in Warren, and it really was the worst.

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Originally Posted by motz

Without a daily headache from 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm? 696 is the worst, especially for the amount of commuter traffic it dumps on I-75 during rush hour. I really detest 696, but understand that it has its purpose. It's funny because the most use that I get out of 696 is going from I-75 to Woodward. I used to take it to an ex's place in Warren, and it really was the worst.

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It's not called the Autobahn of Detroit for nothing. You get off 75 onto 696 in any direction and it's basically being thrown into a NASCAR race.

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Originally Posted by motz

It's funny because the most use that I get out of 696 is going from I-75 to Woodward. I used to take it to an ex's place in Warren, and it really was the worst.

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I think it promoted a lot of job and residential sprawl in Oakland County. If you live in Warren, Roseville, Eastpointe, and etc., it's seemingly more likely than not you'll take 696 to another freeway to get to work, either in OC or up on 20-26 Mile. And the few good jobs in south Macomb County are usually filled by 696 commuters from Oakland County. It's basically encouraged south Macomb to be a jobless pit with cheap residential neighborhoods.

Oh I know it decimated neighborhoods, it wiped out the far southeast corner of Royal Oak, east of Campbell and south of Lincoln. At least running it along 10 mile instead of Farnum didn't put another gash through there.

696 between I-75 and Telegraph has some interesting commuting habits.

In the morning, there is a lot traffic coming west out of Macomb County headed onto NB I-75 to jobs I presume are in Troy. On the other head, eastbound is obviously heavy into Southfield.

In the afternoon, going straight across eastbound into Macomb County isn't too bad. Westbound out of Southfield is obviously bad.
However, eastbound I-696 into the I-75 interchange is stupidity at its finest, and a ton of traffic trying to get onto NB I-75, again people who I presume are leaving Southfield and heading up to Troy, Sterling Heights, etc.

This section of I-696 made it possible for people in Macomb County to get to jobs over in Southfield. I think it made Southfield more relevant for business, but that seems to have now waned.

Southern Macomb county has always been a blue collar / manufacturing economy, before and after I-696.

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Originally Posted by DTWflyer

Oh I know it decimated neighborhoods, it wiped out the far southeast corner of Royal Oak, east of Campbell and south of Lincoln. At least running it along 10 mile instead of Farnum didn't put another gash through there.

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I remember having to drive to work along Woodward between 8 & 12 Mile during the mid 80s when the final middle piece was being constructed. I remember huge swaths of neighborhoods being literally dug up and carried out to make room for the freeway never to return again. Parts of Pleasant Ridge that used to come right up along the west side of Woodward either disappeared or were moved far back from the freeway. Woodward was never the same again either. When the traffic was being rerouted onto what is now the N/S service drives, so to speak, of Woodward, I never visualized that these "temporary" lanes would turn into permanent ones. I always envisioned Woodward would stay above as an 8 lane boulevard/bridge with the freeway below similarly as it went over 8 Mile at that time.

That middle section construction seemed to take forever too. It was probably about 5 yrs in total. Having to drive it everyday was brutal.

I'd be interested in seeing the 10 Mile alignment proposal for the section from Mound to Van Dyke.

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Originally Posted by Mikeg

I'd be interested in seeing the 10 Mile alignment proposal for the section from Mound to Van Dyke.

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I plan on doing Macomb County on Friday and Monday. It takes me a little bit of time to do all the editing and such for each post while I'm "working".

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Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

It's not called the Autobahn of Detroit for nothing. You get off 75 onto 696 in any direction and it's basically being thrown into a NASCAR race.

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From what I see, a lot of the issues come from absolutely terrible driving habits. People who want to go from merging from I-696 to the far left lane RIGHT NOW and will cut off EVERYONE WHO OPPOSES THIS. It's the worst. I just avoid 696 now that I live in Detroit.

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Originally Posted by nain rouge

I think it promoted a lot of job and residential sprawl in Oakland County. If you live in Warren, Roseville, Eastpointe, and etc., it's seemingly more likely than not you'll take 696 to another freeway to get to work, either in OC or up on 20-26 Mile. And the few good jobs in south Macomb County are usually filled by 696 commuters from Oakland County. It's basically encouraged south Macomb to be a jobless pit with cheap residential neighborhoods.

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I definitely agree. I know a lot of people who have been able to live farther from their jobs because of 696. It's allowed friends to live in Hazel Park and commute to Southfield, or allowed them to live in Novi and work downtown. Without 696, I can't imagine things would be insanely different, but I think the sprawl wouldn't have been so heavily east-west without the connector that is 696.

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Originally Posted by motz

I definitely agree. I know a lot of people who have been able to live farther from their jobs because of 696. It's allowed friends to live in Hazel Park and commute to Southfield, or allowed them to live in Novi and work downtown. Without 696, I can't imagine things would be insanely different, but I think the sprawl wouldn't have been so heavily east-west without the connector that is 696.

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When you consider that transportation policies ARE development policies, it makes sense that a generation that felt it could thrive and prosper without a central city would want a lateral freeway traversing the suburbs and giving sprawl a boost to the west. We'll be paying the price for a while, I think, since it's done its job: disturbing the spoked-wheel pattern the city was built upon.

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Originally Posted by motz

From what I see, a lot of the issues come from absolutely terrible driving habits. People who want to go from merging from I-696 to the far left lane RIGHT NOW and will cut off EVERYONE WHO OPPOSES THIS. It's the worst. I just avoid 696 now that I live in Detroit.

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It's definitely not the road to take if you don't accelerate when you merge. I don't know who teaches people to try and merge into 70mph traffic doing 45 and then try to get in the fast lane but it's a circus. Of course, I94 is worse.