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M-6, or the Paul B. Henry Freeway, is a freeway and state trunkline highway in the United States that serves portions of southern Kent and eastern Ottawa counties south of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although the freeway is named for Paul B. Henry, local residents and the press continue to use the original name, South Beltline as well on occasion. The freeway connects Interstate 196 (I-196) on the west with I-96 on the east. M-6 also provides a connection to U.S. Highway 131 (US 131) in the middle of its corridor while running through several townships on the south side of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area in Western Michigan. Each end is in a rural area while the central section has suburban development along the trunkline. The freeway was originally conceived in the 1960s. It took 32 years to approve, plan, finance, and build the freeway from the time that the state first authorized funding in 1972 to the time of the ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2004 that opened the South Beltline to traffic. The project cost around $700 million or around $35 million per mile (approximately $22 million per kilometer). Initial construction started in November 1997, with the first phase opened in November 2001. The full freeway was opened in November 2004. The first phase of construction was completed in asphalt, while the second and third phases were built in concrete. The project was built with two firsts: the first single-point urban interchange (SPUI; ) in Michigan, and a new technique to apply the pavement markings, embedding them into the concrete to reduce the chance of a snowplow scraping them off. In advance of the opening of the freeway to traffic, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) allowed the public to walk or bike the South Beltline in an open-house event called the "Southbelt Shuffle". ==Route description== M-6 starts at exit 64 on I-196 in Ottawa County near Hudsonville. The freeway runs southeast from the interchange through the rural Georgetown and Jamestown townships toward the county line.〔〔〔 Through this area, MDOT traffic surveys measured a traffic count of 27,117 vehicles on average per day, the lowest along the freeway, in 2010. At Kenowa Avenue, the South Beltline crosses into Byron Township in Kent County. The freeway corridor is bounded on each side by farmland, scattered subdivisions, and small pockets of woodland. Near the Wilson Avenue interchange, M-6 curves to the northwest around the edge of the Ironwood Golf Course and heads for the interchange with Byron Center Avenue. On either side of the freeway at Byron Center Avenue, there are two hospitals, Metro Health and St. Mary's Southwest, the former located on the very southern edge of the city of Wyoming. Continuing east, the beltline curves to the southeast and into the cloverleaf interchange complex at US 131.〔〔〔 This "mammoth" interchange stretches over a half mile (0.8 km) in one direction and over a mile (1.6 km) in the other,〔As measured by mainline freeway lane lengths.〕 encompassing 27 bridges and 18 retaining walls. This makes it the largest freeway interchange in Western Michigan. There are four overpasses which carry M-6 over the US 131 freeway: two for the main carriageways in each direction and two for the collector-distributor lanes on each side. The auxiliary lanes funnel the traffic using the interchange off the main carriageways to eliminate conflicts between merging streams of traffic. In the eastbound direction, the collector-distributor lane also has access to a ramp for traffic bound for 68th Street, which runs parallel to, and south of, the M-6 freeway. No such access to 68th Street is provided for westbound M-6 traffic, although 68th Street traffic can access each direction of M-6 or US 131.〔〔〔 East of US 131, M-6 crosses over Division Avenue and enters Gaines Township through a series of sound barrier walls as the freeway ramps merge back into the main lanes.〔〔〔 This area had the highest traffic counts in 2011 at 55,236 vehicles per day.〔 Near Kalamazoo Avenue, the freeway passes through an area with retail businesses and movie theaters on each side of the interchange; to the northeast is East Kentwood High School. On the approach to the East Paris Avenue underpass, M-6 curves first to the northeast and then back to the southeast, passing near one of Steelcase's office buildings, the pyramid-shaped Corporate Development Center. The freeway begins to curve to the northeast as it crosses into Caledonia Township, with an interchange for M-37 (Broadmoor Avenue) and an overpass for 60th Street. M-6 curves around the southeast side of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Cascade Township. As the South Beltline nears I-96, it crosses 48th Street next to the Thornapple Pointe Golf Course. The carriageway splits into ramps for each direction of I-96, the ramps to eastbound I-96 crossing over the Thornapple River in the process. This interchange marks the eastern terminus of the Paul B. Henry South Beltline Freeway. The entire length of the freeway is listed on the National Highway System, a system of roads important to the nation's economy, defense and mobility. The right-of-way along M-6 includes a pedestrian path known as the Frederik Meijer Trail. Previously called the M-6 Trail, it links the Kent Trails west of Byron Center Avenue in Wyoming with the Paul Henry Rail Trail at 60th Street and Wing Avenue by Paris Park in Kentwood. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「M-6 (Michigan highway)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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