Uncovering The Truth: M6 Henry Freeway Woes In Kent County Revealed

One of the big nightmare roads in Michigan is right here in Kent County.

Welcome to a rollercoaster road trip across Kent County on the M-6 Henry Freeway.

The M-6 has been a God send for drivers crossing Kent County into Ottawa County and back, not having to drive through downtown Grand Rapids and clogging up the roads.

On the other hand, if you value your car and hope it doesn't fall apart while crossing the county, maybe you should avoid it.

Holy cow it is a rough ride. In sections it literally is as if you are riding a carnival ride, bounce, boom, up and down. Some people swear they have become car sick driving that road.

So what happened? I mean, you would think the $700 million spent on the freeway should give us a pretty darned good road.

Reddit Grand Rapids asked the same question and a few interesting things emerged.

The contractor did a lousy job, plain and simple. Maybe they did the parking ramp at Rivertown Crossing Mall, as one reader suggested.

First the lowest bid was taken to do the work. You know that's never a good thing to start with.

One commenter said the cement mixture was wrong but decided to use it anyway despite it not being able to hold up to Michigan winters. That worked?

It seems as if the road is always under repair when things develop as the state continues to spend million on joint repair. Example: eastbound side around the Byron Center exit is like driving over railroad ties. Great job there.

And seemingly giving up on the original pavement and using asphalt for long stretches has been another issue.

So, what is the future for the M-6?  First of all it is hard to believe that the M-6 Henry Freeway is 20 years old. That is kind of it's expected life.

Second, they're certainly not going to tear it up and get a do over. That would be totally cost prohibitive.

So there will continue to be constant ramp repairs and road repairs in the long term.

What fun!