Business Spur I-96 - Farmington Hills and Detroit
Former Business Route
Business Spur I-96 replaced the easternmost portion of U.S. 16 (Grand River Avenue) when it was retired in 1962. The route extended from the Interstate 96 freeway end in Farmington southeast to Downtown Detroit. Signs posted along the route included trailblazers for I-96 west (E. Curtis, personal communication).
Original proposals for I-96 outlined an overall route paralleling Grand River Avenue (old U.S. 16). In addition to the Farmington spur of I-96, a section of the Jeffries Freeway was also completed in Detroit northwest to West Chicago. Changes made to the I-96 plans during the 1960s resulted in what the Detroit media described as a "jughandle", a westerly heading for the Jeffries Freeway over most of Schoolcraft Avenue (D. Anderson, personal communication). The Jeffries Freeway east to the Southfield Freeway (M-39) opened in 1977 as the new alignment for I-96. The previously signed freeway spur to Farmington for I-96 was redesignated M-102, which also replaced Business Spur I-96 southeast to Eight Mile Road (Bessert, 2026). Today these sections are both a part of M-5.
The section of Business Spur I-96 on Grand River Avenue between Eight Mile Road and the Jeffries Freeway at Exit 185 was renumbered as M-5. An unsigned state trunk line was retained for the remainder of Grand River Avenue leading south from Exit 185 to Downtown. That section was truncated to the intersection with Middle Street and Cass Avenue in 2004 (Bessert, 2026).