Interstate 196

Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids together. I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or simply the Ford Freeway, in Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford whose political career began in Grand Rapids. This name generally refers only to the section between Holland and Grand Rapids. I-196 changes direction; it is a north–south highway from its southern terminus to the junction with US Highway 31 (US 31) just south of Holland, and an east–west trunkline from this point to its eastern terminus at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. The total length is 80.594 miles (129.703 km). There are currently two business loops and one business spur designated along the length of I-196 serving South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. Another business spur for Muskegon had been designated relative to the I-196 number.

The current freeway numbered I-196 is actually the second in the state to bear the number. West of Grand Rapids, the I-96 number was supposed to run southwest to Benton Harbor while the I-196 number ran as a spur to Muskegon on a freeway completed in 1961. Michigan officials requested a change in 1963 which reversed the two numbers. The current I-196 was opened in segments starting in 1962 from Benton Harbor northward and from Grand Rapids westward. The gap between Holland and Grandville was filled in the 1970s, and a section of freeway that runs through downtown Grand Rapids was rebuilt as a wider freeway in 2010.