Van Atta Connector

**pumphandle** · June-15-14, 09:58 AM

Looks like somebody started a page on this old plan related to I-96:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...Atta_Connector

Does anybody have documentation of this? If so, please edit the article, which is in danger of deletion.

I wasn't able to find anything formal.

Admins: Since there doesn't appear to be a "Mid Michigan" forum, I posted this here, but feel free to move it if you can think of a better place.

**DetroitPlanner** · June-15-14, 10:39 AM

Look at MDOT's plan. There is nothing like that proposed. They don't have the money for this sort of stuff. http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...20140615113248
http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...20140615113610
http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...8_445737_7.pdf

**pumphandle** · June-15-14, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Look at MDOT's plan. There is nothing like that proposed. They don't have the money for this sort of stuff. http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...20140615113248
http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...20140615113610
http://michigan.gov/documents/mdot/M...8_445737_7.pdf

Yeah, this is a really old plan if I remember correctly. I think they decided not to build it sometime in the 70s or 80s. I just figured that if someone had historical documentation of this, it might be worth improving the article with it, rather than having it deleted.

[[Or maybe it was an urban legend from the start? In that case, the article obviously should go, but I would personally find a debunking of the story almost equally interesting.)

**dtowncitylover** · June-15-14, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by pumphandle

[[Or maybe it was an urban legend from the start? In that case, the article obviously should go, but I would personally find a debunking of the story almost equally interesting.)

An urban legend about a non-constructed freeway...how Michigan of us!

Not about Hoffa being buried under a freeway or a ghost that walks along a freeway, but literally a rumor about a freeway never being built. I guess here that is spooky!

**pumphandle** · June-15-14, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

An urban legend about a non-constructed freeway...how Michigan of us!

Not about Hoffa being buried under a freeway or a ghost that walks along a freeway, but literally a rumor about a freeway never being built. I guess here that is spooky!

Not necessarily an urban legend. Just a possible legend that is more likely than not reality. [[I guess that if this story spreads, we'll have an urban legend about an urban legend about a freeway.) Looks like it was also maybe called the "Van Atta Freeway," based on one other forum post I saw, which was not exactly a citable source -- the search continues.

**DetroitPlanner** · June-15-14, 09:38 PM

It probably was a dream at one time, like taking I-275 up to I-75; the Mound/Conner freeway, the extension of Davison to I-96.......................

**rooms222** · June-16-14, 02:20 PM

I'm not going to edit Wikipedia myself [[my only entries are [[1) that Telegraph Rd. the song was written about Detroit's Telegraph Rd & [[2) US 24, not just US 12 are in the City of Detroit currently), but Google Books show several references to the connector in the 60's 70's & 80's --look at the first three listings here:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...nector&tbm=bks

**Sandhouse** · June-16-14, 03:38 PM

The Van Atta Connector was part of an early plan for a complete freeway belt around Lansing. It would have carried traffic between Detroit and I-96 and US-127 north of Lansing, by way of an interchange with I-69. This was dropped from further consideration in the mid-1970's when it was realized that not that many people were itching to drive from Howell to Mount Pleasant, and those that were can be easily handled by US-127 through Lansing.

This was a much smaller plan than Michigan's other unbuilt freeway, which would have twinned I-75 between Oakland County and Midland. Get out your state map and draw a line between the north end of I-275, through Walled Lake and Commerce and White Lake Townships, to I-75 east of Holly, and then north around the east side of Flint and Burton, then curving west to join I-475 at Mt. Morris, then continuing west through Montrose and connecting with M-47 west of Saginaw. This enormous scheme was the result of extrapolating early-1960's traffic growth rates indefinitely into the future. This was abandoned with the end of the M-275 project around 1977, but it accounts for the east-west segment of I-475 north of Flint and the stub freeway on M-47, and the wide spot in the median of I-75 immediately east of Davisburg, where the interchange would have been.

**pumphandle** · June-18-14, 05:50 AM

Thanks to whoever added a citation and merged this in with the main I-96. I knew somebody on here would have solid information about the "unbuilt Okemos freeway" I had heard anecdotally about, and you did not disappoint.

The stuff about the canceled Detroit-area projects is interesting too.

**Burnsie** · June-21-14, 02:27 PM

The "spread median" on I-96 between Dobie Rd. and Meridian Rd. was to be the southern interchange for the abandoned Van Atta Connector. Here's a right-of-way map, showing where the ramps would be as well as when the land was acquired and ultimately sold off.

http://mdotcf.state.mi.us/public/ROW...m/sheet062.pdf

Another spread median, on I-75 between Flushing Rd. and Pasadena Ave., was to be the northern interchange for I-475 before plans changed.

http://mdotcf.state.mi.us/public/ROW...E/sheet015.pdf

The M-DOT ROW maps contain a wealth of info about the history of road development in Michigan.

**Dexlin** · June-21-14, 10:04 PM

Sandhouse, do you think you could give a slightly more detailed description of the route of the connector. Being from Lansing, I'm surprised I never heard of this. The wiki page seems to describe a north-south connection between 69 and 96 [[and I'm assuming directly east of East Lansing), but your description seems to speak of something even further east, maybe in Livingston County.

**Scottathew** · June-21-14, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by Burnsie

The "spread median" on I-96 between Dobie Rd. and Meridian Rd. was to be the southern interchange for the abandoned Van Atta Connector. Here's a right-of-way map, showing where the ramps would be as well as when the land was acquired and ultimately sold off.

http://mdotcf.state.mi.us/public/ROW...m/sheet062.pdf

Another spread median, on I-75 between Flushing Rd. and Pasadena Ave., was to be the northern interchange for I-475 before plans changed.

http://mdotcf.state.mi.us/public/ROW...E/sheet015.pdf

The M-DOT ROW maps contain a wealth of info about the history of road development in Michigan.

This post was ridiculously fascinating. THANK YOU!

**Burnsie** · June-22-14, 11:23 AM

Glad you found it helpful, 48307. I haven't looked, but I suspect Michigan might be one of the very few, if not the only, states that have all this info readily available on the Internet.

Sandhouse, as the map I linked indicates, the southern interchange was to be in Alaeidon Twp., Ingham County. I don't know where the northern interchange was to be, but somewhere around the current I-69 Woodbury Rd. exit seems logical. That's the shortest distance to the southern interchange, allowing for a bend to get around the Lake Lansing park.