M-76 (Michigan highway)
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| Route information | ||||
| Length: | 61.187 mi (98.471 km) | |||
| Existed: | c. July 1, 1919 – 1973 | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end: |
 US 23 in Standish
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 M-55 at West Branch
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| North end: |
 US 27 in Grayling
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| Location | ||||
| Counties: | Arenac, Ogemaw, Roscommon, Crawford | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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| Location: | West Branch |
| Length: | 5.525 mi (8.892 km) |
| Existed: | 1971–1973 |
M-76 is a former state trunkline highway designation in the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The highway's designation was decommissioned when the last section of it was converted to freeway as a part of the present-day Interstate 75 (I-75). At that time, M-76 extended from US Highway 23 (US 23) near Standish northwesterly to I-75 south of Grayling. Two sections of the route followed freeways with a two-lane highway in between to connect them. The former routing of M-76 through West Branch before that city was bypassed was initially redesignated Business M-76 (Bus. M-76). The highway itself ran through mixed fields and forests bypassing several other towns in the region.
First designated by 1919, M-76 initially terminated at Roscommon. It was later extended north through Grayling and west to Kalkaska in the 1920s. A second, disconnected, segment was added to the highway in the 1930s. By the early 1940s, both the disconnected section and the Kalkaska–Grayling were added to M-72. M-76 was converted in stages into a freeway in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the last segment was completed, the number was removed from the highway, and the freeway was added to I-75.
At the time the M-76 designation was decommissioned in 1973, most of the overall highway had been converted to freeway. It started southwest of Standish at an interchange with US 23 in southern Arenac County. The freeway ran northward through fields to a junction with M-61 where it turned northwesterly. M-76 passed to the southwest of Sterling and over a tributary of the Tittabawassee River as the freeway approaches Alger through a forested area. In Ogemaw County, the trunkline ran south and west of Greenwood and continued to the West Branch area. There, M-76 met the southeastern end of its business loop that ran north into downtown. The freeway bypassed the town to the southwest, passed over M-30 without an interchange and then met the northwestern end of the business loop. While M-76 was still an active highway designation, this second business loop junction marked the end of the freeway in the area. M-76 turned west, merging onto M-55 to run concurrently along a two-lane highway.
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