K-58 (former)

K-58 was a state highway in Kansas that was commissioned in 1927. At the time, it was designed to connect Kansas City, Kansas to US-50 in Lenexa.

History

K-58 originally was formed in 1927, with its western terminus at US-50 northeast of Lenexa, and its eastern terminus at US-73E, or Metcalf Avenue.

By 1936, US-73E was renumbered as US-69, and K-58 was realigned. It began at US-50 near Lenexa, Kansas, and followed Metcalf Avenue/US-69 north to Southwest Boulevard (now Merriam Drive). It turned east to Antone Road (now 34th Street) near the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, where it headed north to Strong Avenue. It turned east on Strong, and headed north on (what is today) the Goddard Viaduct. It then headed east on Argentine Boulevard, crossed the Kansas River, and headed north on 18th Street to K-5, the Quindaro Boulevard, where it ended.

In 1956, the 18th Street Expressway was completed, allowing a rerouting of US-69 off of then Southwest Boulevard. A new toll bridge over the Kansas River was built for the expressway, and the old K-58 bridge was demolished. K-58 then was rerouted to leave Metcalf and follow east on Shawnee Mission Parkway, then follow north on the 18th Street Expressway to K-5.

Due to the rerouting of US-50 out of downtown Mission, Kansas, K-158 was created. It ran on Johnson Drive from 18th Street Expressway to Metcalf.

By the end of the 1970s, the suburbs of Roeland Park, Overland Park, and Mission, Kansas had all been incorporated with city limits touching each other. KDOT policy declares that state highways must be eliminated if they run entirely through a city's or citys' limits.Fact|date=March 2008 In 1979, K-58 and K-158 were given to the cities because the highways no longer ran through unincorporated territory in Kansas.

K-58 became the first of several highways to be turned back, shortened, or realigned in Kansas City, as the Interstate highways were being completed.

In 1996, extensive reconstruction was completed in Roeland Park, Kansas, where K-58 formerly traveled. As a result, the former Skyline Drive interchange was transformed into an at-grade intersection, also eliminating the Skyline tunnel underneath the expressway. When this was completed, Johnson County, Kansas renamed the segment from Shawnee Mission Parkway to I-35 as "Roe Boulevard", a continuation of "Roe Avenue" from Fairway, Kansas to I-35.

External links

* [http://www.route56.com/highways/highways.cgi?hwy1=58 Route56.com Information on K-58]