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For those born after 1960, U.S. 40 has always been a part of Interstate 70 in Kansas from the Kansas/Missouri state line west to Oakley. Not that long ago U.S. 40 stood alone as a major national highway across the USA. Now the only remaining section of U.S. 40 that's not a county road, is a stretch of former U.S. 40, from Salina to Ellsworth, and goes by the name of K-140.
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While the name may have changed the preservation of this length of roadway remains the same. Earlier this spring, work began on a bridge replacement on K-140 within the city of Brookville. The existing bridge will be removed and replaced with a new bridge. Traffic is reduced to one lane controlled by traffic signals and has a lane width restriction of 12 feet. Then beginning in early June, two more bridge replacement projects on the Ellsworth side of the Ellsworth/Saline County line began. These bridge projects follow a number are resurfacing projects conducted in the last five years and are a small but necessary part of preserving the highways here in Kansas.
The next time you are in the area take a drive on K-140 and drive on the last remnant of historical U.S. 40.
A quick glance at a Kansas map shows a number of segments of US-40 that are not part of the interstate, nor are they merely a county road. In fact, there's a long stretch of US-40 from Oakley to Limon, Colorado. Was that not part of the original US-40?
ReplyDeleteUS-40 in KS split into a northern and a southern route. The southern route was selected to be part of the new I-70 with US-40 ending in Oakley. The northern route is mostly what we now call US-24 and continues into Colorado ending at Grand Junction. It can be viewed on this map- http://www.usends.com/mapguy/MapPgs/mapx40.htm
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