State Route 3 in Kansas

According to act-test-centers, State Route 3, also known as K-3 is a state route in the U.S. state of Kansas. The road forms a north-south route through southeastern Kansas, from near Girard to near Blue Mound. The road is 70 kilometers long.

Travel directions

K-3 begins west of Girard at an intersection with K-47 and then heads north through relatively sparsely populated rural areas. There are only a few small villages on the first 40 kilometers of the route. The road passes through some shallow river valleys with some forest. Between Uniontown and Bronson is a short double numbering with US 54, this part runs east-west. K-3 then terminates 20 kilometers north west of Blue Mound on K-31.

History

K-3 has always had the current route. In the early 1930s the only asphalted part was the double numbering with US 54. The K-6, which runs slightly more to the west, was already partially asphalted at the time. The then US 73E (current US 69) via Fort Scott was at that time the main tarmac north-south route through eastern Kansas.

In the 1930s, several state highways were asphalted in the region, but not the K-3. In 1940 the entire K-3, except for the double numbering with US 54, was still unpaved. In the early 1940s the road was upgraded from a dirt road to a gravel road. From the early 1950s, the first parts of K-3 were asphalted, the first being around 1950 the southern part between Girard and Hepler. Around 1956-1957 the rest of the route was paved in a short time.

Traffic intensities

K-3 is lightly ridden. Every day 400 to 700 vehicles from the southern part and 200 to 300 vehicles from the northern part use.

Kansas Turnpike

The Kansas Turnpike.

According to liuxers, the Kansas Turnpike is a toll road in the U.S. state of Kansas. The highway runs from the Oklahoma border through Wichita and Topeka to Kansas City and includes several road numbers. The Kansas Turnpike is 380 kilometers long.

Route numbers

• Interstate 35 between the Oklahoma and Emporia border
• Interstate 335 between Emporia and Topeka.
• Interstate 470 at Topeka.
• Interstate 70 between Topeka and Kansas City.

History

Initial plans for an interregional highway between Kansas City and Oklahoma City did not go through the current route, but moved eastward through US 69 and Tulsa. In the mid-1940s, this plan was changed to go through the city of Wichita. The Interstate Highway plan envisaged federally funded highways, but the state of Kansas wanted to build highways before 1956, so they had to become toll roads.

On April 7, 1953, the line between Oklahoma and Kansas City was established. In 1954, construction costs were estimated at $107 million for the complete turnpike from Kansas City to the Oklahoma border. Construction began on December 31, 1954 with a bridge over the Kansas River at Lawrence. On October 20, 1956, the road was completed after 22 months of construction. At the time, the toll road had 14 connections, later a large number of new connections were built.

At that time, the state of Oklahoma also wanted to build a toll road from Oklahoma City to the border with Kansas, but could not get the financing for this in time, so the Kansas Turnpike ended for some time at a level intersection with a local road. Inattentive motorists occasionally crashed on this end. Later this section was built as a toll-free Interstate Highway.

In the years following the construction of the main line, there were various plans for branch lines, including to Leavenworth, St. Joseph, Hutchinson, Great Bend and Hays. In June 1956 the plan for the Interstate Highways was launched, which provided for a nationwide toll-free highway network funded by the federal government. The Kansas Turnpike was then given an Interstate number. Interstate 35 was originally supposed to run through Topeka, over today’s I-335, I-470, and I-70, but the state of Kansas insisted that a separate route be built from Emporia to Kansas City. On April 22, 1958, the connection to Interstate 35 in the state of Oklahoma was also completed.

Road management

The Kansas Turnpike is administered by the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA), which is headquartered in Wichita. The KTA was created in 1953 to build the toll road and is a government agency.

Toll

The toll for driving the complete 380 kilometers in 2020 was $15 in cash and $11.15 with the K-tag. The Kansas Turnpike is therefore very cheap to drive, significantly cheaper than toll roads in Europe.

The Kansas Turnpike has a closed toll system with tickets given on entry and payable upon exit based on the distance traveled. In 1995, K-tag, the Kansas Turnpike’s electronic toll system, was introduced. Users of this get a 15% discount on the toll costs. In practice, few people will drive the entire length of the Kansas Turnpike because I-35 provides a toll-free alternative between Emporia and Kansas City. It is also possible to turn around at all service areas, as they can all be reached in two directions. For motorists entering and exiting the turnpike at the same toll station, a separate toll rate based on time will be charged. Since 24 August 2017,open road tolling rolled out on the Kansas Turnpike, first at the toll booth at the eastern end in Bonner Springs near Kansas City.

Design

Since the toll road is primarily designed for the Interstate Highway system, the design requirements of the Kansas Turnpike do not always match those of other Interstate Highways. The most striking difference is a central reservation that is narrower than the minimum 11 meters at an Interstate Highway, namely 6.1 meters and is sunken. From 1985, Jersey Barriersinstalled in the median strip to avoid head-on accidents. The milestones are ascending over the entire Turnpike, so not per road number. The largest part of the toll road, between the border with Oklahoma and the capital Topeka, has been constructed with a 10-centimeter layer of asphalt. The rest of the route has a cement concrete road surface. The curve radius in the highway is limited to 3 degrees and the gradients are no more than 3 percent.

Maximum speed

The Kansas Turnpike has had a speed limit of 75 mph (120 km/h) for nearly its entire length since 2011. In its early years, the Kansas Turnpike had no speed limit, in 1957 this was changed to 80 mph (130 km/h), which in 1970 it was reduced to 75 mph during the day and 70 mph at night. In 1974 this was lowered to 55 mph like all roads in the United States. In 1987, the speed limit was raised again to 65 mph outside the cities, except between Emporia and Topeka, which was not an Interstate Highway until October 1987, when the speed limit was also increased to 65 mph there. In 1997, a speed limit of 70 mph was introduced on the entire turnpike.