diff --git a/zebra/rib.h b/zebra/rib.h
index e3ed6210ca..61beebb409 100644
--- a/zebra/rib.h
+++ b/zebra/rib.h
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ struct route_entry {
 	u_int32_t nexthop_mtu;
 
 	/* Distance. */
-	u_char distance;
+	uint8_t distance;
 
 	/* Flags of this route.
 	 * This flag's definition is in lib/zebra.h ZEBRA_FLAG_* and is exposed
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ extern int rib_add(afi_t afi, safi_t safi, vrf_id_t vrf_id, int type,
 		   u_short instance, int flags, struct prefix *p,
 		   struct prefix_ipv6 *src_p, const struct nexthop *nh,
 		   u_int32_t table_id, u_int32_t metric, u_int32_t mtu,
-		   u_char distance);
+		   uint8_t distance);
 
 extern int rib_add_multipath(afi_t afi, safi_t safi, struct prefix *,
 			     struct prefix_ipv6 *src_p, struct route_entry *);
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@ extern void rib_unlink(struct route_node *, struct route_entry *);
 extern int rib_gc_dest(struct route_node *rn);
 extern struct route_table *rib_tables_iter_next(rib_tables_iter_t *iter);
 
-extern u_char route_distance(int type);
+extern uint8_t route_distance(int type);
 
 /*
  * Inline functions.
diff --git a/zebra/rt_netlink.c b/zebra/rt_netlink.c
index 0352dbd7e3..a939dde8d5 100644
--- a/zebra/rt_netlink.c
+++ b/zebra/rt_netlink.c
@@ -277,6 +277,7 @@ static int netlink_route_change_read_unicast(struct sockaddr_nl *snl,
 	int table;
 	int metric = 0;
 	u_int32_t mtu = 0;
+	uint8_t distance = 0;
 
 	void *dest = NULL;
 	void *gate = NULL;
@@ -405,16 +406,38 @@ static int netlink_route_change_read_unicast(struct sockaddr_nl *snl,
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * For ZEBRA_ROUTE_KERNEL types:
+	 *
+	 * The metric/priority of the route received from the kernel
+	 * is a 32 bit number.  We are going to interpret the high
+	 * order byte as the Admin Distance and the low order 3 bytes
+	 * as the metric.
+	 *
+	 * This will allow us to do two things:
+	 * 1) Allow the creation of kernel routes that can be
+	 *    overridden by zebra.
+	 * 2) Allow the old behavior for 'most' kernel route types
+	 *    if a user enters 'ip route ...' v4 routes get a metric
+	 *    of 0 and v6 routes get a metric of 1024.  Both of these
+	 *    values will end up with a admin distance of 0, which
+	 *    will cause them to win for the purposes of zebra.
+	 */
+	if (proto == ZEBRA_ROUTE_KERNEL) {
+		distance = (metric >> 24) & 0xFF;
+		metric   = (metric & 0x00FFFFFF);
+	}
+
 	if (IS_ZEBRA_DEBUG_KERNEL) {
 		char buf[PREFIX_STRLEN];
 		char buf2[PREFIX_STRLEN];
 		zlog_debug(
-			"%s %s%s%s vrf %u", nl_msg_type_to_str(h->nlmsg_type),
+			"%s %s%s%s vrf %u metric: %d Admin Distance: %d", nl_msg_type_to_str(h->nlmsg_type),
 			prefix2str(&p, buf, sizeof(buf)),
 			src_p.prefixlen ? " from " : "",
 			src_p.prefixlen ? prefix2str(&src_p, buf2, sizeof(buf2))
 					: "",
-			vrf_id);
+			vrf_id, metric, distance);
 	}
 
 	afi_t afi = AFI_IP;
@@ -454,7 +477,7 @@ static int netlink_route_change_read_unicast(struct sockaddr_nl *snl,
 				memcpy(&nh.gate, gate, sz);
 
 			rib_add(afi, SAFI_UNICAST, vrf_id, proto,
-				0, flags, &p, NULL, &nh, table, metric, mtu, 0);
+				0, flags, &p, NULL, &nh, table, metric, mtu, distance);
 		} else {
 			/* This is a multipath route */
 
@@ -466,7 +489,7 @@ static int netlink_route_change_read_unicast(struct sockaddr_nl *snl,
 
 			re = XCALLOC(MTYPE_RE, sizeof(struct route_entry));
 			re->type = proto;
-			re->distance = 0;
+			re->distance = distance;
 			re->flags = flags;
 			re->metric = metric;
 			re->mtu = mtu;
diff --git a/zebra/zebra_rib.c b/zebra/zebra_rib.c
index 5c3ec10a79..1a9bd5a58e 100644
--- a/zebra/zebra_rib.c
+++ b/zebra/zebra_rib.c
@@ -129,9 +129,9 @@ _rnode_zlog(const char *_func, vrf_id_t vrf_id, struct route_node *rn,
 #define rnode_info(node, ...)                                                  \
 	_rnode_zlog(__func__, vrf_id, node, LOG_INFO, __VA_ARGS__)
 
-u_char route_distance(int type)
+uint8_t route_distance(int type)
 {
-	u_char distance;
+	uint8_t distance;
 
 	if ((unsigned)type >= array_size(route_info))
 		distance = 150;
@@ -2463,7 +2463,7 @@ void rib_delete(afi_t afi, safi_t safi, vrf_id_t vrf_id, int type,
 int rib_add(afi_t afi, safi_t safi, vrf_id_t vrf_id, int type, u_short instance,
 	    int flags, struct prefix *p, struct prefix_ipv6 *src_p,
 	    const struct nexthop *nh, u_int32_t table_id, u_int32_t metric,
-	    u_int32_t mtu, u_char distance)
+	    u_int32_t mtu, uint8_t distance)
 {
 	struct route_entry *re;
 	struct nexthop *nexthop;