A Major Interstate Highway Was Once Planed Through the Heart of the Campus of Michigan State University

Ask any student at Michigan State - or a local or a parent visiting - and you'll quickly learn about traffic issues around campus. Like a major metropolitan area at rush hour, the streets around campus as well as Grand River can become quite congested and backed up.

Would an interstate through campus have helped? It was a plan once very seriously proposed.

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The clue to any such plans for a limited access freeway through campus comes from the odd interchange where Trowbridge Road meets I-496 and I-127. The Olds Freeway (I-496) travelling from downtown Lansing ends at I-127 nearly on line with were Trowbridge meets the north-south freeway from the opposite direction.

The plan would have seen I-496 extended through East Lansing and the heart of the MSU campus.

The freeway would have followed along where Trowbridge is today and the railroad tracks through the university curving to the northeast crossing Grand River near were the Campus Hills Apartments are today and eventually meeting the highway that is now I-69 towards Flint.

The discussion came up recently on a Facebook Group dedicated to Lansing history. Many recall opposition from MSU leadership was enough to squash the project.

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It's interesting to consider how traffic and development would be different around East Lansing, Haslett and Okemos would have been different has the "Spartan Expressway" been completed.