K-10 (Kansas highway)

K-10
K-10
	K-10 highlighted in red
Route information
	Maintained by KDOT
Length	36.611 mi (58.920 km)
Existed	1929–present
Major junctions
West end	I-70 / Kansas Turnpike in Lawrence
	US-40 in Lawrence; US-40 / US-59 in Lawrence; K-7 near Lenexa;
East end	I-435 in Lenexa
Location
Country	United States
State	Kansas
Counties	Douglas, Johnson
Highway system
	Kansas State Highway System; Interstate; US; State; Spurs;

K-10 is a 36.611-mile-long (58.920 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Kansas. It was originally designated in 1929. It is mostly a controlled-access freeway, linking Lawrence to Lenexa. It provides an important toll-free alternate route to Interstate 70 (the Kansas Turnpike). Several scenes for the TV-movie The Day After were filmed on the highway at De Soto in 1982 portraying a mass exodus evacuating the Kansas City area on I-70.

Route description

K-7 Junction from westbound K-10 in Olathe

The highway's western end begins as a two-lane highway (a super-two at I-70 exit 197, just west of Lawrence. It bypasses the city to the south, providing access to Clinton Lake, and also intersects with U.S. Route 59, beginning a four lane freeway after the interchange. K-10 continues to the northeast on the new South Lawrence Trafficway (completed 2016) before interchanging with 23rd Street (Old K-10). After exiting Lawrence eastbound, it passes through the city of Eudora, and then the cities of De Soto and Olathe, suburbs of Kansas City. It then terminates at an interchange with Interstate 435 and Interstate 35 in Lenexa. In Johnson County, the road is called the Governor John Anderson, Jr. Highway.

History

K-10 originally extended west of Lawrence to Herington, via Alta Vista, Alma, and Topeka. In 1956 the portion between Topeka and K-99 near Alma was designated as US-40 in preparation for upgrading this stretch to Interstate standards (for I-70). The segment between Alta Vista and Herington was redesignated as K-4 and K-10 was truncated eastward to Lawrence.

The process of upgrading K-10 to a freeway was begun in 1974. The first section completed was the section from De Soto to the junction with K-7, opening on November 8, 1976. The freeway was finally completed on December 18, 1984, when the stretch from K-7 to I-435 was completed.^[1] The old two-lane roadbed of K-10 was turned over to the counties to use as a secondary route. In Douglas County it became CR 442, although many of the locals, especially in Eudora, commonly refer to it as Old K-10.

The portion of K-10 between the Edgerton Road exit and the De Soto interchange at former K-285 (now Lexington Avenue) was used in the movie The Day After and, for the purposes of the film, was temporarily redesignated Interstate 70.

South Lawrence Trafficway

In the early 1970s traffic studies of K-10 determined a bypass around the west and south sides of Lawrence was necessary, and the Kansas Department of Transportation commenced due diligence on the bypass project. The bypass on the west side of Lawrence was completed in November 1996. Prior to the opening of the trafficway, K-10 had ended at the junction of US-40 and US-59 in Lawrence. Completion of the eastern leg of the trafficway was delayed for nearly three decades by lawsuits from environmentalist groups and Haskell University, as the planned route took the highway through the Haskell-Baker Wetlands. In October 2012, the deadline for the plaintiffs of the lawsuits to seek a Supreme Court review of the case passed,^[2] and a mitigation plan for the wetlands was added to the trafficway plans.^[3] Construction began on November 12, 2013,^[4] and was anticipated to be completed by Fall 2016 before Thanksgiving.^[5] The ribbon cutting ceremony for the trafficway was held on November 4, 2016, and in attendance were many local and state leaders including Governor Sam Brownback and Senator Pat Roberts. The trafficway officially opened to all traffic on November 9, 2016.^[6]

Future

South Lawrence Trafficway

In spring 2020, KDOT announced it was evaluating three alternatives to reconstruct the interchange with K-10 and I-70, and to add a grade separated interchange to the K-10 / Wakarusa Drive intersection (although an interchange at Wakarusa was considered at least as early as 2016).^[7] The preferred alternative was to be identified in the fall of 2020.^[8] The formal Notice of Availability (NOA) for the project documents was published in the Federal Register on April 1, 2022.^[9]

Final design will begin immediately with construction anticipated to begin in 2024.^[10]

Junction list

All exits are unnumbered.

County	Location	mi^[11]	km	Destinations	Notes
Douglas	Kanwaka Township	0.000	0.000	I-70 / Kansas Turnpike – Topeka, Kansas City	Western terminus; I-70 / KTA exit 197; partial cloverleaf interchange; roadway continues north as E 850 Road
	Lawrence	1.874	3.016	US-40 west (6th Street) – Lawrence, Topeka	Western end of US-40 overlap; diverging diamond interchange opened on September 9th 2024
				Bob Billings Parkway / N 1500 Road	Diamond interchange, opened December 2015
				Clinton Parkway	East end of two-lane expressway
				Wakarusa Drive / 27th Street	Proposed folded diamond interchange,^[9] currently open as an at-grade signal-controlled intersection
		8.429	13.565	US-40 east / US-59 – Lawrence, Ottawa	Eastern end of US-40 overlap; diamond interchange; west end of freeway
		10.724	17.259	CR 1055 (E 1500 Road) / Haskell Avenue	Partial cloverleaf interchange, opened November 2016
				23rd Street	Directional T interchange; formerly K-10 west
		14.869	23.929	CR 1057 (E 1900 Road)	Diamond interchange
	Eudora	17.843	28.716	CR 1061 (Church Street / E 2200 Road) – Eudora	Diamond interchange
	Eudora	19.268	31.009	CR 442 (N 1400 Road)	Old K-10; diamond interchange
Johnson				Evening Star Road	Diamond interchange
				Edgerton Road	Diamond interchange
	De Soto	24.637	39.649	Lexington Avenue	Partial cloverleaf interchange; former alignment of K-10; designated as K-285 until its decommissioning in 1997 ^[12]
	De Soto			Kill Creek Road	Diamond interchange
	Lenexa–Olathe line			Cedar Creek Parkway	Diamond interchange
		31.980	51.467	K-7 – Bonner Springs, Olathe	Cloverleaf interchange
				Woodland Road	Diamond interchange
				Ridgeview Road	Diverging diamond interchange; prior interchange converted July 2015^[13]
	Lenexa			Renner Boulevard	Partial cloverleaf interchange
	Lenexa	36.611	58.920	I-435 to I-35 / Renner Boulevard, Lackman Road – Wichita, Des Moines	Eastern terminus; I-435 exit 1B
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus Tolled Unopened