Interstate 275 - Michigan

So I had to head up to the Troy office today. Normally, I will take M-14 to I-275 to I-696 to I-75 to Fourteen Mile to John R and that is the way I took today. Under normal circumstances that will take around an hour to travel. But of course, today wouldn't be a normal day.I call these "Jenny Signs" because I started to notice them after Granholm became governor. I believe it is called a dynamic message sign and is a part of what Michigan is calling the Intelligent Transportation System. I believe they started to appear here in the early 2000's, but I could be wrong. I should have heeded this sign and got off 275 at Seven Mile and figure out an alternate route.

This is what greeted me next. Apparently, a truck or something tipped over and left debris all over the highway. As I passed that spot, they were pretty close to having it all cleaned up.

Somehow this wouldn't be this blog without some sort of history lesson about this particular freeway. In 1955, the concept for I-275 came about. It originally was going to be I-75 with the I-275 portion splitting off to go through Detroit. It would start around Monroe and continue on to Flint. Eventually, the freeways were switched.

I-275 as it currently stands goes from roughly Monroe to Novi. There were plans to continue up to Flint but those were scrapped, so it ends abruptly at I-696 and I-96. Actually, it would be nice if it continued to Pontiac as there's not really a good way to get from the Ann Arbor area to there.