Route Description
US 223 starts at an interchange in with State Route 51 (SR 51) and SR 184 in Sylvania on the northwest side of the Toledo, Ohio metropolitan area. Although unsigned by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) along the US 23 freeway, US 223 runs concurrently around two-thirds of a mile (1.0 km) to the Ohio–Michigan state line. Once across the border, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has signed both numbers along the freeway. The two highways' designations follow the freeway northward through rural farmland. At exit 5, US 223 separates from the freeway and turns west along an extension of St. Anthony Road.
The highway continues westward through the farmland as a two-lane road to the Monroe–Lenawee county line. US 223 meets its former routing and turns northwesterly along Lansing Road, crossing a branch of the Indiana & Ohio Railway. US 223 runs parallel to the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad that branches off southwest of the highway. Both the highway and rail line run northwesterly into Blissfield. The two cross while US 223 runs along Adrian Street through downtown, and the highway makes its first crossing of the River Raisin before leaving downtown. The second crossing is in Palmyra northwest of Blissfield.
US 223 returns to a due west track as it crosses a branch of the Norfolk Southern Railway, and the roadway approaches the outskirts of Adrian. The highway runs along the southern city limits for Adrian as it meets M-52. The only business loop for US 223 runs north of this intersection with M-52 into downtown Adrian while US 223 continues through this secondary business corridor south and west of town. US 223 crosses Beaver Creek and then intersects M-34 on the western city line in a residential section of Adrian. As US 223 crosses fully into the city of Adrian, it continues northwesterly, then turns due west at the intersection were it meets its business loop's western terminus. Outside of town, the highway cross through more farmland continuing to northwestern Lenawee County.
US 223 passes out of flat farmlands into the Irish Hills region as the highway runs northeast of Manitou Beach as the roadway rounds the northern shore of Devils Lake. The Irish Hills region has gently rolling hills that transition to forests from farms. Southeast of Somerset US 223 meets US 127. Signage for US 223 ends at US 127, but according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the body responsible for US Highway number assignments, US 223 continues along US 127 less than a mile to end at US 12. The entire highway in both Ohio and Michigan is listed on the National Highway System, a system of highways important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.
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