Portal:Michigan highways/Selected article/May 2017
M-66 is a north–south state trunkline highway on the Lower Peninsula that runs from the Indiana state line in the south to Charlevoix in the north. M-66 is the only state highway to traverse almost the entire north–south distance of the peninsula. It starts as a continuation of State Road 9, which provides access to the Indiana Toll Road. The total length is {{convert|272.9|mi|km}}, which includes {{convert|3.4|mi|km}} of freeway between Interstate 94 (I-94) and downtown Battle Creek designated as I-194. One section of the highway is an expressway, a type of divided limited access highway, while the section along I-194 is a full freeway, otherwise M-66 is a two-lane rural highway. The first usage of the M-66 designation dates back to around July 1, 1919, with the rest of the original state highway system. At the time, the highway only extended between Lowell and Lakeview, a route now covered by M-91. The highway has been lengthened in a series of extensions north and south starting in 1925. A rerouting in 1944–45 removed M-66 from its original 1919 routing to replace another highway south of Six Lakes, the change that spawned M-91. The last big extension in 1965 resulted in the modern trans-peninsular highway route. The last modifications were shorter reroutings in the 1970s. (more...)