Interstate 696

1955 planning map for Detroit's Interstate Highways

I-696 is part of the original Interstate Highway System as outlined in 1956–58.[15] As originally proposed by the Michigan State Highway Department, the freeway would have been numbered I-98.[16] Construction started in 1961.[17] The Lodge Freeway, the first segment of which opened in 1957,[18] was given the Business Spur I-696 designation in 1962.[19][20] The first segment of I-696 built was the western third of the completed freeway which opened in 1963–1964 at a cost of $16.6 million (equivalent to $108 million in 2020[21]). This section ran from I-96 in Novi east to the Lodge Freeway in Southfield.[2] The then-unfinished freeway was named for Walter P. Reuther, former leader of the United Auto Workers labor union after he and his wife died in a plane crash on May 9, 1970. The next year the Michigan Legislature approved the naming by passing Senate Concurrent Resolution 57.[22]

In the late 1970s, during the second phase of construction, lobbying efforts and lawsuits attempted to block construction of the central section. If successful, the efforts would have left the freeway with a gap in the middle between the first (western) and second (eastern) phases of construction.[17] During this time, MDOT assigned M-6 to the eastern section of the freeway under construction. Signs were erected along the service roads that followed 11 Mile Road to connect the already built stack interchange at I-75 east to I-94.[23] By the time the eastern freeway segment was initially opened in January 1979 between I-94 and I-75, the signage for M-6 was removed and replaced with I-696 signage;[24] it cost $200 million (equivalent to $587 million in 2020[21]) to complete.[2] Later in 1979, a closure was scheduled to allow work to be completed on three of the segment's nine interchanges.[24]

Prior to the opening of the central portion of I-696 in the late 1980s, eastbound traffic in Southfield, as seen here in July 1988, was routed to southbound M-10 near the Telegraph Road exit (now exit 8); the once-abandoned portion of I-696 appears to the left.

The central section was the most controversial. Governor James Blanchard was 15 years old and a high school sophomore in neighboring Pleasant Ridge when the freeway was proposed[25] and purchased a home in the area in 1972.[17] He joked during remarks at the dedication in 1989, "The unvarnished truth about this freeway? I wasn't even alive when it was first proposed,"[25] and added, "frankly, I never thought it would go through."[17] Total cost at completion for the entire freeway at the end of the 30-year project was $675 million (equivalent to $1.25 billion in 2020[21]).[26]

Arguments between local officials were so intense that during the 1960s, then-Governor George W. Romney once locked fighting bureaucrats in a community center until they would agree on a path for the freeway. During the 1970s, local groups used then-new environmental regulations to oppose the Interstate.[17] The freeway was noted in a Congressional subcommittee report on the "Major Interstate System Route Controversy in Urban Areas" for the controversies in 1970. Before 1967, local communities had to approve highway locations and designs, and the debates over I-696 prompted the passage of an arbitration statute. That statute was challenged by Pleasant Ridge and Lathrup Village before being upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court.[27] Lathrup Village later withdrew from a planning agreement in 1971; had that agreement been implemented, construction on the central section was scheduled to commence in 1974 and finish in 1976.[28]

Pedestrian plazas in Oak Park

The community of Orthodox Jews in Oak Park wanted the freeway to pass to the north of their suburb. When this was deemed to be futile, the community asked for changes to the design that would mitigate the impact of the freeway to the pedestrian-dependent community. Final approval in 1981 of the freeway's alignment was contingent on these mitigation measures.[10] To address the community's unique needs, the state hired a rabbi to serve as a consultant on the project.[17] In addition, a series of landscaped plazas were incorporated into the design, forming the tunnels through which I-696 passes. These structures are a set of three 700-foot-wide (210 m) bridges that cross the freeway within a mile (1.6 km).[29] They allow members of the Jewish community to walk to synagogues on the Sabbath and other holidays[30] when Jewish law prohibits driving.[17] These plazas had their length limited; if they were longer, they would be considered tunnels that would require ventilation systems.[31]

The Detroit Zoo was concerned that noise and air pollution from the Interstate would disturb the animals. They were satisfied by $12 million (equivalent to $22.2 million in 2020[21]) spent on a new parking ramp and other improvements.[25] The City of Detroit tried to stop I-696 as well, but in the end the city was forced to redesign its golf course. A refusal to grant an additional nine feet (2.7 m) of right-of-way by Detroit forced additional design and construction delays during the 1980s.[17]

One of the last obstacles to construction of the freeway was a wetlands area near Southfield. MDOT received a permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to destroy 6+1⁄2 acres (2.6 ha) of wetland and create a replacement 11-acre (4.5 ha) area. In the process, some prairie roses and wetlands milkweed were transplanted from the path of I-696 in 1987.[32] The final section of the eight-lane freeway opened at a cost of $436 million[2] (equivalent to $808 million in 2020[21]) on December 15, 1989. At the time, one caller to a Detroit radio show commented, "do you realize we have been to the moon and back in the time it has taken to get that road from Ferndale to Southfield?"[17]

As part of the overall rehabilitation to the Mixing Bowl interchange, a new interchange at Franklin Road was to be constructed in 2006.[33] An exit ramp from I-696 eastbound to American Drive opened in April 2006. An entrance ramp from Franklin Road to I-696 westbound opened in July 2006. The Franklin Road overpass, which had been closed during this time, re-opened in October 2006.[34] On November 9 that year, the speed limit was increased from 65 to 70 mph (105 to 113 km/h) along the length of I-696.[5][35]