You know what's interesting about the Hall Street corridor... it would appear
as if some of it at Cascade Road is still undeveloped. You can see it here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=grand+rapids,+mi&sll\
=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.494074,78.837891&ie=UTF8&ll=42.941203,-85.544615&spn\
=0.008011,0.019248&t=h&z=16

Barry L. Camp

http://www.facebook.com/blcamp
http://www.twitter.com/blcamp


--- On Wed, 7/8/09, waukazoo2000 <brianreynolds@...> wrote:

> From: waukazoo2000 <brianreynolds@...>
> Subject: [greatlakesroads] A never-built Grand Rapids by-pass for US-16 (Hall
Street) early 1930s
> To: greatlakesroads@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 6:53 PM
> I stumbled across some interesting
> right-of-way acquisitions by the Michigan Department of
> State highways in the very early 1930s.
>
> About the same time as the original plans for the US-16
> south and west by-pass of Grand Rapids, (modern-day M-11,
> 28th Street on the south and Wilson Avenue on the west),
> apparently there was a competing plan for the south by-pass
> that would have been parallel with 28th Street, but 2 miles
> north.
>
> From Cascade Road (old US-16) at Hall Street, the US-16
> by-pass would have been routed along the township line
> between Cascade and Ada Townships, then continue along the
> township line between Paris Township (now City of Kentwood)
> and Grand Rapids Township.  Right of way was actually
> acquired for three miles, extending about 1000 feet west of
> modern-day East beltline, nearly to East Grand Rapids city
> limits.
>
> The MDOT right of way sheet (available online) indicates
> that all of the right of way was acquired between late
> September 1930 and early January 1931.  It also
> indicates that it was abandoned as a trunkline
> 10-29-1932.  What is curious about this is that the
> right of way for the 28th Street route was being acquired
> about the same time.  In fact, many of the parcels
> along 28th Street had already been acquired in January of
> 1930.
>
> It is as though there were two competing teams, each
> pushing for their plan. Or perhaps the two teams were each
> not aware of what the other was doing.
>
> At any rate, there never has been a road built along most
> of the proposed township line route.  The right of way
> acquired in the 1930s was later sold or relinquished, mostly
> in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
>
> --
> Brian Reynolds
> Hastings Michigan
>
>
>
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