US 2 / US 41 widens to four lanes along Ludington Street , which forms the east – west axis of the Escanaba street grid . Near downtown , the highway meets M ‑ 35 , which runs along the city 's north – south axis , Lincoln Avenue . The trunklines merge and run north , bypassing the traditional central business district for a different business corridor . Lincoln Avenue runs north carrying four lanes of traffic past the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds , site of one of the two state fairs for the state of Michigan , the only state to have twin fairs . US 2 / US 41 / M ‑ 35 continues north on Lincoln Avenue past the campus of Bay de Noc Community College . The four @-@ lane highway crosses the Escanaba River just upstream from its mouth near the large Mead Paper Mill and shifts to run immediately next to Little Bay de Noc . The section here carried the highest traffic counts along all of US 2 in the state : an average of 23 @,@ 977 vehicles used this segment of roadway daily in 2011 .