An effort is being made to persuade the Kansas Department of Transportation to connect U.S. 400 with I-44 to give Southeast Kansas a connection with the east-west Interstate System.
Iola should sign on.
The U.S. 400 corridor is now designated as the No. 3 Congressional Priority Corridor in the United States. It carries traffic across the country from coast to coast, south of the other major east-west corridors that have long been well developed.
Parsons has already seen the impact. Commercial traffic has increased 500 percent since the designation of U.S. 400. Building a connecting four-lane highway from Parsons south to I-44 will boost its use still more.
Iola and the other communities in Southeast Kansas will also benefit. U.S. 400 is less than an hour away. As it develops, Iola industries, businesses and professionals will have easier, safer access to points east and west, as will the other business centers in the region.
Iola and the rest of this quarter of the state has a stake in all of the major highways that serve it. We should also support the improvement of U.S. 54, U.S.169, U.S. 75 and U.S. 69. First class highways are the arteries that give commerce and industry life and strength.
While it is true that the KDOT budget is never large enough to meet all of the needs of all of the highways that tie Kansas together and assure an easy flow of goods and services to every part of the state, every community should speak up for its highway needs and give KDOT the support it needs from each Legislature to continue to keep Kansas highways among the best in the nation.
Building a four-lane between Parsons and I-44 would be a solid step forward for Southeast Kansas and, therefore, for the state as a whole. Rep. Bill Otto and Sen. Derek Schmidt should give it their enthusiastic backing.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
