History
When the Interstate 196 (I-196) freeway was built in the Saugatuck area in the 1960s, US Highway 31 (US 31) was shifted to the new freeway. The former route along Blue Star Highway was returned to county jurisdiction, which removed the various state highway markings from the roadway and displaced Blue Star Highway from the state highway maps of the time. At the time, Mr. and Mrs. Howard and "Gene" Temple owned a motel along the roadway in Saugatuck, and they were dismayed over the number of cancelled reservations they were receiving because guests could not find their business. Mrs. Temple approached the Village of Saugatuck, the local chamber of commerce to get better highway markings for the area. She even contacted state legislators and members of the State Highway Commission. No changes were made, even though businesses along Blue Star Highway were suffering from a lack of traffic.
Mrs. Temple contacted officials at the Allegan County Road Commission and the County Road Association of Michigan in August 1968. State Senator Gary Byker of Hudsonville was also contacted, and he convened meetings with representatives on the state, county and local levels in search of a solution. These meetings resulted in a test program for the 1970 state highway map that marked Blue Star Highway as A-2; the Allegan County Road Commission spend $2000 to erect about 50 markers along the road in their county. A second road in the Upper Peninsula was designated B-1 between Engadine and Rudyard in Mackinac and Chippewa counties. Both county roads contained the caption "Experimental Program for Identifying Key County Roads". The markers used were the blue and yellow pentagon shields developed by the National Association of County Engineers. Mrs. Temple earned the honor as the first woman in "Michigan to obtain a highway designation from the State Highway Commission".
The program was implemented by October 5, 1970, and expanded in scope. Instead of using designations beginning with an A for county roads in the Lower Peninsula and with a B for those in the Upper Peninsula, the system was divided into eight zones. The first of these revised assignments were shown on the 1971 state highway map; A-2 retained its number by B-1 was renumbered to H-40 in the Upper Peninsula. Earl Rogers, the engineer-director of the County Road Association of Michigan stated at the time that the county road commissions would gradually phase in signage over the coming years. Participation in the system was made optional, but all counties had agreed to the system.7 As of 2012, no counties in the E zone have assigned roads to the system, and many counties in the other zones have yet to participate.
Read more about this topic: List Of Michigan County-Designated Highways
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