It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids.

[5] In addition, the highway has been named by the Michigan Legislature the Gerald R. Ford Freeway to honor the 38th President of the United States.

At the trumpet interchange, I-196 runs north from I-94 and passes to the west of the Point O'Woods Golf & Country Club.

US 31 joins I-196 from the southwest and runs concurrently with I-196 as the freeway passes through farm fields in southwestern Michigan.

Past the river, the freeway turns northeasterly and runs roughly parallel to the Lake Michigan shoreline several miles inland.

At the community of Lake Michigan Beach, I-196/US 31 meets the northern terminus of M-63 at exit 7, and the LMCT joins the freeway for the first time.

North of this interchange, the freeway parallels A-2, a county road that follows the Blue Star Highway, the former route of US 31.

[8][9] A bit further north, I-196/US 31 crosses into Van Buren County and assumes the Gerald R. Ford Freeway name.

As it approaches South Haven, the freeway passes near the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Van Buren State Park.

North of the power plant and park, the freeway turns farther inland to bypass the city of South Haven.

[8][9] In Allegan County, I-196/US 31 passes a pair of golf courses and continues northward through farm fields.

They trade places again when I-196/US 31 turns northeasterly on the south side of the twin cities of Saugatuck and Douglas.

The freeway passes to the south side of the airport,[8][9] and it crosses a rail line owned by CSX Transportation and used by Amtrak's Pere Marquette train[10] before curving northeasterly through the interchange with M-40.

The freeway crosses into Ottawa County south of the Macatawa River before meeting the other two interchanges for Holland, the second of which is the northern end of the business loop in Zeeland.

About two miles (3.2 km) past Hudsonville, the trunkline has an interchange with M-6, a freeway that runs along the south side of the Grand Rapids area.

The freeway has an interchange for 44th Street, which provides access to the RiverTown Crossings mall and other retail and restaurant establishments in the area.

To the south of the freeway, the business spur for Wyoming and Grand Rapids departs to follow Chicago Drive near an industrial area.

The freeway meanders northward past the transmission antennas for radio stations WJRW and WYHA and around the west side of the John Ball Zoological Garden.

The trunkline has an interchange with M-45 (Lake Michigan Drive) on the north side of the zoo before I-196 runs downhill turning eastward.

This complex structure is adjacent to the Grand River north of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

[9][11] As the freeway runs eastward, it passes the area of Grand Rapids known as the "Medical Mile", a district anchored by the Van Andel Institute, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, a campus of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the Butterworth Hospital campus of Corewell Health.

BL I-196/US 31 has an interchange for A-2 (Blue Star Highway) and Washington Avenue before the freeway ends in the southern reaches of Holland.

The trunkline then runs as a divided highway northward, bypassing downtown Holland to the east and intersecting M-40.

Northeast of downtown, BL I-196 leaves US 31 and the LMCT at an interchange to follow an expressway along the route of Chicago Drive.

From that point, the old route of M-21 inside the cities to US 31 was redesignated as a business loop of I-196 with the state taking control of Washington Avenue to the downtown area.

It starts at the partial interchange for exit 72 on I-196 and then moves onto the surface street Chicago Drive for the majority of the distance in Wyoming, running through an industrial area.