US Highway 56

Length: 471.450 miles

West Endpoint: Oklahoma State Line at Elkhart

East Endpoint: Missouri State Line in Mission Hills

Counties Served:
Morton, Stevens, Seward, Haskell, Gray, Ford, Edwards, Pawnee, Barton, Rice, McPherson, Marion, Dickinson, Morris, Lyon, Osage, Douglas, Johnson

1. History
2. Junction Guide
3. AADT

In the early 1950s, a push was made to create a new US 55 between Springer, New Mexico and Kansas via what was then K-45. There were various suggestions on the alignment. The first suggestion would have followed K-45 all the way to Ellsworth, then followed US 40 and K-4 via Topeka and Atchison. This was rejected by AASHO due to the excessive use of overlapping routes. A revised route, submitted in March 1955, routed the proposed route via Lincoln Center and Mahanttan, replacing various state numbered highways. The final proposal, submitted in June 1956, had the new route following K-45 west of Larned, then turning east on US 50N to Kansas City, with a spur US route designation on the old US 50N between Larned and Garden City. The June 1956 proposal was adopted by AASHTO, but since the roadway was predominantly east-west, they adopted an even number, turning the proposed US 55 into US 56.

In an April, 1985 resolution, US 56 was routed to meet I-35 at Gardner, turning back much of the old roadway between Gardner and Olathe.