In the U.S. state of Kansas, U.S. Route 50 (US-50) is a main east–west highway serving the southwest, central and northeastern parts of the state. Kansas City is the only metropolitan area US-50 serves in the state but the highway does serve several other larger towns in Kansas such as (from west to east) Garden City, Dodge City, Hutchinson, Newton and Emporia.

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.

History

US-50 once had a split into two branch routes in Kansas. Branch routes were once common along the U.S. highway system but have always been discouraged. Most branch routes that remain exist mostly in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The US-50 split began in Garden City and ended near Baldwin City. In Garden City, the split began at Kansas Avenue and Main Street. US-50N continued west on Kansas Ave. and went through Jetmore, Larned, Great Bend, Lyons, McPherson and Baldwin City. US-50S ran along current US-50. The routes rejoined near what is now the intersection of US-56 and K-33.

US-50N was replaced by US-156 from Garden City to Great Bend and US-56 the rest of the way. US-156 is now known as K-156. The split was removed during the late 1950s.