Kansas Turnpike
The Kansas Turnpike is a controlled-access road that lies entirely within the US state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas cities, including Wichita, Topeka, and Lawrence. A toll road, the turnpike is owned and maintained by the Kansas Turnpike Authority, which is headquartered in Wichita.
The Kansas Turnpike was built from 1954 to 1956, predating the Interstate Highway System. While not part of the system's early plans, the turnpike was eventually incorporated into the Interstate System in late 1956 and is designated today as four different Interstate Highway routes: Interstate 35, Interstate 335, I-470, and I-70. The turnpike also carries a piece of two U.S. Highways: U.S. Highway 24 and US-40 in Kansas City.
Because it predates the Interstate Highway System, the road is not engineered to current Interstate Highway standards and notably lacks a regulation-width median. To reduce the risk of head-on collisions, the Kansas Turnpike now has a continuous, permanent Jersey barrier in the median over its entire length. On opening, there was no fixed speed limit on the highway; drivers were merely asked to keep to a "reasonable and proper" limit, although, shortly afterward, signs were erected in certain stretches indicating a maximum speed of. From 1970 to 1974 and again since 2011, the turnpike's speed limit has been set at ; that limit during the earlier period applied only during daytime hours.
Around 120,000 drivers use the turnpike daily. The road features numerous services, including a travel radio station and six service areas. One of these service areas is notable for the presence of a memorial to University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, who died near the current highway's route.
Since July 1, 2024, toll collection on the Kansas Turnpike has been all-electronic, with all tolls payable with a K-TAG transponder or via license plate recognition. The turnpike is self-sustaining; it derives its entire revenue from the tolls collected and requires no additional tax money for maintenance or administration.
History
Early history
Early federal plans for a nationwide system of interregional highways did not include a route along or near the present turnpike, instead connecting Oklahoma City and Kansas City via southeastern Kansas and US-69. By the mid-1940s, this route had shifted to roughly the present I-35 alignment, serving Wichita. The only major difference from the present route was between Wichita and Emporia, where the highway ran north to Newton before turning northeast along US-50.In the early 1950s, toll roads were gaining in popularity as a mechanism for funding new superhighways. This trend started with the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940, which was mimicked by other toll roads in New York, New Jersey, several New England states, West Virginia, Ohio, and Colorado. In October 1951, the Highway Council of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce researched the possibility of integrating the state into a potential cross-country turnpike system. Eastern Kansas was also included in an interstate turnpike system stretching from Galveston, Texas, to Saint Louis, Missouri, via Kansas City, that was proposed by Oklahoma Governor Johnston Murray. Many firms from construction industries, as well as those concerned about the state's economic development, worked to have legislation passed to allow the turnpike to be constructed. Governor Ed Arn and Gale Moss, the State Highway Director, were two major proponents of the turnpike concept.
The turnpike idea was an attractive one because initial construction was to be financed by the private sector via sales of revenue bonds, allowing state highway funds to be used for other important projects. The new toll road would also reduce traffic, and thus maintenance costs, on existing roads. There was also a concern that if Kansas lagged behind in turnpike construction, it might be bypassed by toll roads in other states, leaving it at an economic disadvantage. The toll concept also had the benefit of ultimately putting the financial burden on the drivers who actually used the road, instead of using tax revenue that had been collected from residents statewide. There was some opposition to the plan from both government officials and citizens due to concerns that the toll revenue might not cover the repayments to investors, bankrupting the turnpike authority and burdening the state government with the remaining debt. There were also worries about the possibility of the turnpike requiring maintenance before the bonds had been repaid. Some critics also felt that the high speeds typical of turnpike driving were unsafe. As right-of-way for the project was obtained, the turnpike drew additional opposition from farmers and ranchers, who objected to the turnpike bisecting their property, making it difficult to access disjointed parcels of land.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce held "turnpike clinics" in several locations across Kansas in 1952, reporting an overwhelmingly positive reception from the public. The Kansas Turnpike Act, defining a turnpike from Oklahoma to Kansas City, became effective April 7, 1953. It created the KTA, with Gale Moss selected as its first chairman. With a budget of only $25,000, the KTA's first office was a former barbershop in the Kansas State Capitol.
Given Oklahoma's plans to build a turnpike north from Oklahoma City to the Kansas state line, and taking into account traffic flow maps prepared by the highway department, a preliminary route was chosen connecting the proposed Oklahoma turnpike to Kansas City via Wichita and Topeka. A second route extending from Topeka to Salina and further west to the Colorado state line was also studied. Over 173,000 drivers were surveyed to determine how many of them would be willing to use the two proposed routes in order to establish their profitability. While the western Kansas route was determined not to be feasible, the Oklahoma–Kansas City route was projected to generate a total revenue of $9 million in 1957. After considering a number of different alignments, including one bypassing Topeka via the present route of I-35, the state decided on an "airline" route between Wichita and Topeka. From Wichita south, the turnpike was to parallel US-81, continuing into Oklahoma; the interchange with US-166 at South Haven was included to provide an outlet if Oklahoma lagged in its construction. The turnpike was to parallel US-40 from Topeka to Kansas City. The Kansas City end was set at 18th Street and Muncie Boulevard, which was to be extended and upgraded to a freeway to the Intercity Viaduct by the state.
After a ruling from the state supreme court that found that the KTA could issue bonds and oversee the construction and administration of the turnpike, the turnpike authority sold $160 million in revenue bonds in September 1954. KTA bonds were quickly bought by investors, who were attracted by the Kansas Turnpike's low construction costs—only one-third of that of turnpikes in other states—and projections showing that enough tolls would be collected to pay off investors after 19 years.
Ground was broken on December 31, 1954, at the Kansas River bridge near Lawrence. Construction of the entire length of the turnpike was scheduled to take place all at once, with the turnpike partitioned into 14 parts, and the overall length also divided into 43 smaller portions. The KTA sent out letters en masse to the affected landowners, offering a price and referring appeals to the local district court, which typically valued the land at a lesser amount; this methodology was not without criticism. During the construction period, the state highway department suffered a "brain drain" as many staffers resigned to take up KTA jobs, which paid better salaries and offered more exciting challenges.
In June 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed into law, granting funding to the nationwide Interstate Highway System. Without its Oklahoma link, the Kansas Turnpike was in danger of being bypassed by the Interstate System entirely. At the end of 1956, however, the Bureau of Public Roads and the state of Kansas agreed to route I-35 along the turnpike south of Emporia and I-70 along the piece east of Topeka. The state insisted on a separate Emporia–Kansas City alignment, and the mileage that would have been used to build I-35 from Wichita to Emporia via Newton was instead used for I-35W from Wichita via Newton to Salina.
After almost 22 months of construction, the road was opened for a day of free travel on October 20, 1956, between 6:00 am and 2:00 pm. An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 cars traveled on the turnpike. Many of those motorists traveled to Lawrence for a football game between the University of Kansas and University of Oklahoma. Official opening ceremonies were held at interchanges in each of the three major cities on October 25. The Kansas City celebration included Gene Autry jumping his horse through a large paper map of the turnpike. John Masefield, the British Poet Laureate, wrote a tribute to commemorate the occasion. On the first day after the official opening, 7,197 vehicles traveled the turnpike, with 81 toll collectors and 50 maintenance workers on duty. The turnpike originally had 14 interchanges; by 2012, there were 22.
Southern terminus
Despite Oklahoma's role in instigating the construction of the Kansas Turnpike, its plans for a connecting turnpike fell through. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority had not performed a traffic study, as the KTA had, to prove that the proposed Oklahoma turnpike would be profitable. Oklahoma also suffered from a poorer credit rating than did Kansas. Additionally, by this time, many states' turnpike authorities were competing in the bond markets for investor dollars. All of these issues combined made it difficult for OTA to issue bonds for its toll road. When funding had been obtained, political issues stalled the proposed toll road further.With no counterpart to the south, the Kansas Turnpike ended at the state line, at an at-grade intersection with E0010 Road. Just across the state line was an oat field, into which many inattentive motorists crashed. This abrupt end became nationally famous after Wyoming Governor Milward L. Simpson and his wife crashed in mid-1957. The oat farmer plowed the field to provide a safer landing, and the KTA was persuaded to install a huge wooden barrier at the end of the highway. Within a day, three more drivers had crashed and destroyed the barrier, so the KTA closed the turnpike south of the South Haven interchange. The KTA provided the state of Oklahoma with financial aid to construct its portion of a temporary road leading to the interchange. The lack of continuity in the highway was one of the primary reasons that the road generated little revenue in its first years; another reason was a lack of education on the part of motorists as to the concept of a toll road.
Although Oklahoma's plans to construct a toll road from the southern end of the Kansas Turnpike at the state line to Oklahoma City did not materialize, a year and a half after the opening of the turnpike, a connection to US 177 at Braman was put into service on April 22, 1958. Eventually, I-35 was completed south to Oklahoma City.