At the time of its decommissioning, US 16 started its run through Michigan at the Grand Trunk Western Railroad docks in Muskegon. The SS "Milwaukee Clipper" operated as a car ferry across Lake Michigan, connecting Muskegon to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where US 16 continued to the west. From the docks, US 16 and M-46 traveled concurrently south and then east through downtown Muskegon. At Peck Street, US 16 turned south along Business US 31 (Bus. US 31). These two highways ran concurrently out of town to the south through Muskegon Heights to Norton Shores. There, the business loop ended at US 31, and US 16 joined the I-196 freeway headed east. (Later, the I-96 and I-196 designations west of Grand Rapids would be flipped, but at the time leading up to US 16's decommissioning in the state of Michigan, this had not yet been approved.) The I-196/US 16 freeway traveled southeast of Norton Shores through woodlands in rural Muskegon County parallel to the former US 16 routing through Fruitport to Nunica in Ottawa County. The freeway turned more directly east in Nunica past the eastern terminus of M-104, and continued through more mixed forest and grassland terrain to serve the communities of Coopersville and Marne.