I-696 Location Alternatives - What Could Have Been

[Scottathew]

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)


What exists today: [[Click here for map)



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.