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M-553 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. It connects M-35 near Gwinn with the Marquette Bypass, an expressway carrying US Highway 41 and M-28 in Marquette. M-553 connects Marquette with Sawyer International Airport at the unincorporated community of K.I. Sawyer, the former site of a US Air Force base, in the Sands Plains area of Marquette County. The trunkline was originally County Road 553 and dates back to the 1930s. During the early 1990s, the City of Marquette extended one of their streets, McClellan Avenue, southward to connect to CR 553. The county road was transferred from the Marquette County Road Commission to the jurisdiction of the Michigan Department of Transportation on October 1, 1998. MDOT assigned most of the former county road the M-553 designation after the transfer was complete. One section that was less than a mile (about 1.4 km) was given the M-554 designation, which was was not signed by the state. In 2005, control of various roadways was exchanged between the City of Marquette and MDOT, and M-553 was extended through the city. At the same time, M-554 was turned over to the city's jurisdiction. (Full article...)