U.S. Route 50 in Kansas - Route Description

Route Description

US-50 enters the state running concurrently with US-400, which joins US-50 at Granada, Colorado. The first town it runs through is Coolidge. Syracuse is the first county seat (Hamilton County).

US-50 then enters Kearney County and passes though the towns of Lakin and Deerfield before entering Finney County. West of the Old US-50 and Big Lowe Road overpass in Holcomb US-50 splits into 4 lanes and the speed limit increases to 70MPH until east of the intersection with US-83. The Highway then tapers back into 2 lanes at the 3rd street intersection and remains so until the intersection with Bus-50 south of town. US-50 then passes though the towns of Ingalls, Cimmaron, Dodge City, Kinsley, and Hutchinson before it heads to Newton. In Newton, US-50 joins Interstate Highway 135 for a short time before it angles northeast to Emporia, another meat-packing town as well as the home of Emporia State University. US-50 then joins I-35 and it overlaps that interstate for most of the rest of the way in Kansas.

US-50, along with I-35, then passes through a place known as "BETO Junction," which is where it meets US-75 north of Burlington. The letters in the acronym stand for Burlington, Emporia, Topeka and Ottawa, which are the cities to the south, west, north and east, respectively.

Ottawa is the home of Ottawa University. From there, US-50 passes through Olathe and meets I-435 in Lenexa. At this point. US-50 leaves I-35 and joins I-435 for the rest of its trip in Kansas.