Interstate 69 - History

History

A route from Indianapolis northeast via Fort Wayne to I-80/I-90 near Angola was added to the proposed "Interregional Highway System" by the early 1940s. Unlike most of the routes, it was not drawn along an existing U.S. Highway corridor, except north of Fort Wayne (where it used US 27); most of it ran roughly parallel to SR 9 and SR 37. The extension beyond Angola to I-94 near Marshall, Michigan, actually started out as part of what evolved into I-94. On early plans, the Chicago–Detroit route would have replaced US 112 (now US 12), splitting from I-80/I-90 at South Bend. By 1947, the route had been shifted north to present I-94, along what was then US 12, but the connection to South Bend remained, splitting at Kalamazoo.

The I-69 designation was assigned to the Indianapolis–Angola route in 1957, while the short South Bend–Kalamazoo route became proposed Interstate 67. The I-67 designation was shifted east to the US 27 corridor by early 1958, eventually being absorbed into the extension of I-69 to I-94 near Marshall which was built in 1967. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 authorized an additional 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of Interstates, to be chosen by FHWA; among Michigan's proposals was a 156-mile (251 km) extension of I-69 northeast and east via US 27 to Lansing, M-78 to Flint, and M-21 to Port Huron. However, the FHWA initially only approved the route to I-475 in Flint. The continuation to Port Huron was eventually approved in late 1984. Michigan's 1,241-mile (1,997 km) portion of the Interstate system was completed in 1992, when the last piece of I-69 opened southwest of Lansing between I-96 and Charlotte.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 included two High Priority Corridors that would later become parts of a proposed cross-country extension of I-69:

• (18) Corridor from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Memphis, Tennessee, via Evansville, Indiana.
• (20) US 59 Corridor from Laredo, Texas, through Houston, to the vicinity of Texarkana, Texas.

Corridor 18 was extended southwest to Houston, where it connected to Corridor 20, by the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993; the new definition read "Corridor from Indianapolis, Indiana, through Evansville, Indiana, Memphis, Tennessee, Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana, and to Houston, Texas." The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 made further amendments to the description of Corridor 18, specifying that it would serve Mississippi and Arkansas, extending it south to the Mexican border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and adding a short connection at Brownsville, Texas. This act also specified that Corridors 18 and 20 were "future parts of the Interstate System", to become actual Interstates when built to Interstate standards and connected to other Interstates. Although the act designated Corridor 9 as I-99, no number was assigned to Corridors 18 and 20 yet.

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), enacted in 1998, greatly expanded the definition of Corridor 18 to include the existing I-69, as well as I-94 between Port Huron and Chicago. A connection to Pine Bluff, Arkansas was added, and the extension to the Lower Rio Grande Valley was detailed as splitting into two routes at Victoria, one following US 77 and the other following US 59 and US 281 to the Rio Grande. This act also assigned the I-69 designation to Corridors 18 and 20, with the branches on US 77 and US 281 to the Rio Grande being "I-69 East" and "I-69 Central". With TEA-21, the I-69 extension took shape, and remains today as those segments.