Metropolitan Parkway or Metro Parkway is a major thoroughfare in

Metro Detroit Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the officia ...

that stretches west from Lake St. Clair Metropark to Bloomfield Township. Metro Parkway corresponds to 16 Mile Road in Metro Detroit's mile road system, and is sometimes referred to as such by area residents, but it is rarely officially called 16 Mile. It is only called Metro Parkway in

Macomb County Macomb County ( ) is a county on the eastern shore of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Detroit metropolitan area, bordering Detroit to the north and containing many of its northern suburbs. Its seat of government is Mt. Clemens, a ...

, and is known as Big Beaver Road and Quarton Road in

Oakland County Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a principal county of the Detroit metropolitan area, containing the bulk of Detroit's northern suburbs. Its seat of government is Pontiac, and its largest city is Troy. As of the ...

Route description

At its start, Metro Parkway is a four-lane divided expressway with signalized intersections at major roads, but very limited access from side streets. The east end of Metro Parkway is in Harrison Township at the main entrance to Lake St. Clair Metropark, at an intersection with Jefferson Avenue. Two miles to the west, Metro Parkway meets

Interstate 94 Interstate 94 (I-94) is an east–west Interstate Highway connecting the Great Lakes and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. Its western terminus is just east of Billings, Montana, at a junction with I-90; its eastern ter ...

at a

partial cloverleaf A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial road, arterial Interchange (road), interchange designs ...

interchange, and then crosses the

Clinton River The Clinton River is a river in southeastern Michigan in the United States. It is named in honor of DeWitt Clinton, who was governor of New York from 1817 to 1823. The main branch of the river rises from wetlands and coldwater tributaries from ...

and enters Clinton Township. There, Metro Parkway widens to six lanes, and is joined by a frontage road, Nunneley Road, on either side, before an intersection with

Gratiot Avenue M-3, known for most of its length as Gratiot Avenue (, ), is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Detroit metropolitan area of the US state of Michigan. The trunkline starts in Downtown Detroit and runs through the city in a northeas ...

. It crosses the Clinton River again as it enters

Sterling Heights Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Sterling Heights is located roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had ...

. After crossing the river, Metro Parkway passes the Freedom Hill County Park. It becomes a more standard divided highway at the Schoenherr Road intersection, with business and side streets along the corridor. After it crosses Van Dyke Avenue, Metro Parkway passes Chrysler's

Sterling Heights Assembly The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (abbrevriated SHAP), is a automotive manufacturing factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan currently operated by Stellantis North America.Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on February ...

printing plant, and continues west as Metro Parkway for another two miles. Upon crossing Dequindre Road, the Macomb-Oakland County border, Metro Parkway enters

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

and its name changes to Big Beaver Road. Big Beaver initially runs through a residential area, but the corridor progressively becomes more commercialized as it approaches I-75, with

strip mall A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping mall, shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a ...

s on either side at the Rochester Road intersection. High-rise office buildings, including the

PNC Center PNC Center may refer to: *PNC Center (Cincinnati), a building in Cincinnati, Ohio * PNC Center (Cleveland), a building in Cleveland, Ohio, the former headquarters of National City * PNC Center (Fort Lauderdale), formerly National City Center a buil ...

, dominate the landscape by the time Big Beaver crosses Livernois Road. The three-mile segment of Big Beaver between Rochester Road and Coolidge Highway forms Troy's central business district, and is one of the busiest corridors in Oakland County. Half a mile west of Livernois, Big Beaver meets

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...

. The junction with I-75 was previously a

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange (road), interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passe ...

, but it was reconstructed in 2020 as a

diverging diamond interchange A diverging diamond interchange (DDI), also called a double crossover diamond interchange (DCD), is a subset of diamond interchange in which the opposing directions of travel on the non-freeway road cross each other on either side of the inte ...

. Big Beaver then continues west past more hotels and office buildings, including the headquarters of

Kelly Services Kelly Services, Inc. (formerly Russell Kelly Office Service and Kelly Girl Service, Inc.) is an American multinational office staffing company. The company places employees at all levels in various sectors including financial services, informati ...

. The two buildings of the high-end

Somerset Collection Somerset Collection is a shopping mall of more than 180 retailers located in Troy, Michigan, United States, part of Metro Detroit. Somerset Collection is developed, managed, and co-owned by The Forbes Company, and is among the most profitable ...

shopping mall, connected by an enclosed pedestrian bridge, flank Big Beaver on either side as it approaches Coolidge Highway. West of Coolidge, Big Beaver passes the long-abandoned former Kmart headquarters and a few more office buildings before narrowing to a five-lane undivided road. As it crosses Adams Road, Big Beaver enters Bloomfield Township, and crosses

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

a mile to the west. Immediately west of the Woodward intersection, the road narrows to two lanes, and its name changes again to Quarton Road. Quarton continues west for another three miles along the southern border of

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded on most sides by Bloomfi ...

, before ending at US-24 (Telegraph Road). Quarton continues as a local road at another intersection a quarter mile north on Telegraph. This segment of Quarton runs two miles west before ending at Inkster Road. West of Inkster, Quarton's path is followed by Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield, and eventually by Buno Road in Milford Township.

Big Beaver Corridor Study

In 2006, the Big Beaver Corridor Study was announced, with the goal of making Big Beaver into a world-class boulevard, creating a

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

for Troy, which while having office parks conspicuously lacks a city center. The goals of the study were to create a more positive impression of Troy among visitors, and to increase pedestrian accessibility of local businesses. In 2008, the Big Beaver Corridor Study was incorporated into a new city master plan. One result of the plan was a change in

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

, allowing for businesses to be located close to the street and for restaurants to be free-standing, rather than part of a

or enclosed mall. As a result, the Big Beaver Corridor through Troy has become a regional "restaurant hub" with many high-end independent and chain restaurants.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metropolitan Parkway (Detroit Area) Parkways in the United States Streets in Michigan Metro Detroit