<P> In April 2017, MDOT announced the reconstruction of US 12 east of Ypsilanti, which will reduce the route from a boulevard to a singular road along the existing eastbound lanes . This project would also eliminate an interchange with Wiard Road, and will allow the adjacent American Center for Mobility to use the westbound lanes as part of a facility to test automated vehicles . </P> <P> The roads that have carried US 12 in Michigan have been given a number of memorial highway names . In 1922, after the publication of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis that street name took on a pejorative connotation . The newspaper in Jackson advocated that the main road from Detroit to Chicago which formed the main street through many communities in southern Michigan should be given a new name . It was already labeled the Michigan--Detroit--Chicago Highway on travel maps of the time, so the paper suggested that the roadway should be renamed to create the longest street in the country . Both Chicago and Detroit had streets named Michigan Avenue, so that is what the newspaper suggested for a new name . Albion was the first community to change the name of its street followed by Jackson and Marshall in 1924, Battle Creek in 1928 and Kalamazoo in 1929 . </P> <P> In 1952, US 12 was dedicated to the 32nd Infantry Division . The division used a red arrow as its insignia to symbolize how they pierced the German Hindenburg Line during World War I and Japanese defenses during World War II . The soldiers who composed the division were drawn from the Michigan and Wisconsin National Guards . After other proposals failed, US 12 was named the Red Arrow Highway on August 30, 1952, and dedicated on March 22, 1953 . Jurisdiction of most of the roadways that composed US 12 at that time has passed to local governments as I - 94 was built, but the highway still bears that name in Berrien County and Van Buren County . </P> <P> Count Casimir Pulaski was a Polish - born noble and soldier who fought on the side of the Americans during the Revolutionary War . He was appointed a brigadier general on the recommendations of George Washington and later became known as the "Father of the American Cavalry". He was severely wounded during the Siege of Savannah and died while being treated on the brigantine Wasp . The route of US 112 was designated the Pulaski Memorial Highway by Public Act 11 of 1953 and formally dedicated in Detroit on October 4, 1953 . The segment of what is now US 12 in Berrien County still bears this name . </P>

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