| I-35 | |||
| Get started | South Haven | ||
| End | Kansas City | ||
| Length | 236 mi | ||
| Length | 379 km | ||
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Interstate 35 or I -35 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Kansas. The highway runs from the central south at Hunnewell to Kansas City in the northeast. A significant portion of the route is a toll road, from the Oklahoma border to Emporia. After that, the road is toll-free, but there is the option to travel all the way to Kansas City via I-335 and I-70 on toll roads. The route is 379 kilometers long.
- 800ZipCodes: Provides a list of all postal codes in the state of Kansas, covering area code, zip code and map for each city within Kansas.
Travel directions
I-35 at Wichita.
Southern Kansas & Wichita
At Hunnewell, Interstate 35 in Oklahoma crosses the border into Kansas. After the first exit, the road becomes a toll road, the Kansas Turnpike. This is where US 166 crosses from Caldwell in the west to Arkansas City and Joplin in the east. The landscape is slightly sloping, bare and the road network is in a grid pattern of 1 by 1 mile. The next town is Wellington, where one crosses US 160, which runs from Medicine Lodge in the west to Winfield and Independence in the east. US 160 opens up the sparsely populated and remote southern Kansas. US 81 runs parallel to the highway.
- a2zDirectory: Lists popular attractions in Kansas, including parks, festivals and holidays of Kansas.
One then reaches the first suburbs of Wichita, a larger city in southern Kansas with 344,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city located entirely in Kansas. The Kansas Turnpike remains just a toll road, and one then crosses Interstate 35, which runs north to Salina, and is a longer three-digit Interstate Highway. One then passes by McConnell Air Force Base, and along eastern Wichita. One crosses US 54, the road from Wichita to Fort Scott in the east of the state. Then follows the interchange with State Route 96, the northern bypass of Wichita. After that, they leave the city, and I-35 has now been given a northeasterly direction.
You pass El Dorado, a regional town where you cross US 77, which runs from Arkansas City in the south to Junction City in the north. The highway then runs through bare rolling and virtually uninhabited area. Near the regional town of Emporia, the I-35 goes east via a TOTSO, the Interstate 335 continues straight as a toll road to the capital Topeka. Here, traffic to Kansas City can choose from two routes, continue on I-35 (toll-free) or I-335/I-70. The toll route is about 40 kilometers longer.
Eastern Kansas & Kansas City
I-35 in Lenexa, a suburb of Kansas City.
At Emporia, US 50 also joins, coming west from Hutchinson. The I-35 then continues on its 2×2 lane through quiet rural area. At the hamlet of Olivet, one crosses US 75, which runs from Independence in the south to Topeka in the north. I-35 turns slowly northeast here. The town of Ottawa crosses US 59, which runs from Parsons in the south to Lawrence in the north. The landscape is still very monotonous, but that’s what Kansas is known for. Eventually, US 56 comes out of McPherson and runs parallel to I-35.
One then reaches Gardner, the first suburb of Kansas City, located 40 kilometers from downtown. From Olathe, a suburb of 111,000 inhabitants, the road has 2×3 lanes. At Lenexa one crosses Interstate 435, the Kansas City ring road. Shortly thereafter, US 69 merges into a highway from the southern suburbs. Further north are 2×4 lanes. Congestion does not occur in Kansas City. A little further on, you cross Interstate 635, a tangential connection along the west side of Kansas City. Then US 69 turns off again, heading north. The I-35 then continues for the last few kilometers through Kansas, after which Interstate 35 in Missouri just before the centercontinues towards Kansas City and Des Moines.
History
The first plans for a connection between Oklahoma City and Kansas City envisioned a connection via Tulsa, further east. Later this was changed to connect the important city of Wichita as well.
Construction began in 1954 at Lawrence. On October 20, 1956, the Kansas Turnpike opened to traffic from Kansas City to the Oklahoma border at South Haven. In 1956 this toll road became part of the Interstate Highway system. Only the part from Emporia to the Oklahoma border was numbered I-35. The link between Emporia and Topeka was numbered I-335 and further I-70 as far as Kansas City.
Construction of toll-free I-35 from Emporia to Kansas City began well, and by 1961 a long stretch from Ottawa to Kansas City was completed. After that, however, construction stalled. There were then two missing links, from Emporia to Ottawa, and the last stretch in Kansas City to the Missouri border. In 1968 the Emporia bypass opened and in 1971 the missing link opened in Kansas City. After that, however, it wasn’t until 1977 or 1978 that the last missing link between Emporia and Ottawa was completed.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Date |
| exit 0 | Exit 127 | 204 km | 20-10-1956 |
| Exit 215 | Exit 231 | 26 km | 1959/1960 |
| Exit 183 | Exit 215 | 51 km | 1961 |
| Exit 231 | Exit 232 | 2 km | 1962 |
| Exit 127 | Exit 133 | 10 km | 1968 |
| Exit 232 | Exit 233 | 1 km | 1969 |
| Exit 233 | Exit 234 | 1 km | 1971 |
| Exit 170 | Exit 183 | 21 km | 1973 |
| Exit 141 | Exit 170 | 47 km | 1974 |
| Exit 133 | Exit 141 | 13 km | 1977/1978 |
Toll
I-35 between Emporia and Ottawa.
The southern portion of I-35 coincides with the Kansas Turnpike and is a toll road. It concerns the stretch from the border with Oklahoma to Emporia. The rest of I-35 is a good toll-free alternative to the Kansas Turnpike, both roads eventually ending in Kansas City. Tolls on the Kansas Turnpike are low and relatively little traffic avoids I-35 for this reason.
Traffic intensities
Every day, 14,900 vehicles cross the Oklahoma border, which barely increases to 23,700 vehicles just south of the city of Wichita. East of Wichita, volumes drop to 12,900 vehicles, and remain low at around 11,000 vehicles on the toll-free section after Emporia. The intensities only increase in the Kansas City metropolitan area, 113,000 for I-435, and 161,000 after the connection with US 69. 82,000 vehicles cross the Missouri border into the urban area every day. I-35 is not really extremely busy given the size of the Kansas City metro area.
Lane Configuration
| From | Unpleasant | Lanes | Comments |
| Exit 0 | Exit 217 | 2×2 | |
| Exit 217 | Exit 227 | 2×3 | Kansas City |
| Exit 227 | Exit 231 | 2×4 | Kansas City |
| Exit 231 | Exit 235 | 2×3 | Kansas City |
