both the Davison Freeway and the M-8 state trunkline designation in the area. The roadway was named for Jarad Davison, an English immigrant and one of the early settlers of the area. The street was the only one of the 30 parallel streets in Highland Park that crossed through the city from border to border and connected with Detroit streets. This road was heavily congested, approaching gridlock during rush hour by 1940. A traffic survey showed that 96% of the traffic using the street was crossing Highland Park with no destination in the city. A proposal to rebuild the street as a six-lane, limited-access highway was approved by the Highland Park City Council on March 17, 1941. The council also appropriated $100,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for the construction with Wayne County and the remaining $3,400,000 (equivalent to $ in ) paid by state and federal government appropriations. The freeway construction required a half-block of right-of-way on the south side of Davison Avenue and the demolition of 69 homes to accommodate the of excavation along the project. Another 63 homes were moved. The outbreak of World War II accelerated the construction schedule after the project was given priority due to the defense plants near the roadway. The freeway opened for traffic without a dedication ceremony at 4:00 p.m. on November 25, 1942. Travel times across Highland Park dropped from 15 minutes to around 3–4 minutes after the freeway opened. The roadway was the first urban, depressed freeway in the United States. The concrete for the road bed was cured underwater by flooding, creating an extremely hard and durable surface which lasted for more than 50 years (some requiring dynamite for its eventual removal). In 1968, the freeway was extended eastward a few blocks through a junction with the newly opened Chrysler Freeway (I-75) to its present-day eastern terminus near Conant Street. The state requested additional Interstate Highway System mileage that year as well, and in the proposals submitted was a request to extend the Davison to I-96 and I-94. These plans to transfer the freeway to state control and extend it were dropped in the 1970s after opposition to another freeway in Detroit. The plans would have extended it west to the Jeffries and east to a Van Dyke Freeway (extended M-53). Upon its transfer to state control in 1993, it had previously been a county-maintained freeway, the Davison