Old lawsuit reveals proposed (but never built) interchange

[route56]

While perusing through Google Scholar looking for cases involving the Kansas Department of Transportation or it's predecessor agency, the State Highway Commission of Kansas, I found a Kansas Supreme Court case that revealed a unbuilt interchange that was proposed near St. John.

The name of the case was Soden v. State Highway Commission, 192 Kan. 241 (1963) (Link should go to the decision text on Google Scholar)

In 1955, the State Highway Commission began construction of a new alignment for US 50S south of St. John, straightening out a 'kink' in the routing. The new alignment opened in October of 1956. [The opinion referred to the route as 50S throughout, but since this is also when the US 50N/US 50S split in Kansas was eliminated, I suspect that the new alignment would have opened as US 50] The Plaintiffs in this case owned the land where the new US 50 intersects with US 281 and planned on building a truck stop. The first year saw an abnormal number of accidents at the intersection. In April of 1957, the SHC's highway engineers recommended constructing a grade separation, and the commission began the process of acquiring the right-of-way for it. The SHC began condemnation proceedings in June. By the time the courts has set the value of the condemned land in August of 1957, traffic and the accident rate had died down. The plantiffs appealed the valuation of the property to be taken and in December of 1958, filed for an injunction to enjoin to condemnation proceedings, arguing that the proposed interchange had become speculation and was unlikely to be actually built.

The district court denied the injunction, and the Supreme Court affirmed that denial.

There's no indication whether the condemnation was completed. However, it is clear that the interchange was never built.

However, it does appear that accidents at the US 50/US 281 junction are once again a problem, and that KDOT has decided to use a different solution. A roundabout at this intersection is part of the February 2019 lettings.

No word on if the current landowner at this intersection is thinking of building a "Travel Plaza."

[J N Winkler]

Google Maps doesn't have property-line GIS for Stafford County, which makes it difficult to assess what parcels are involved and what the implications of the condemnation would have been.  I can see the would-be truck stop developers welcoming the diamond interchange (and thus not suing to prevent its construction) unless KDOT's predecessor agency was proposing to acquire the bulk of the land they proposed to use, leaving them noplace to erect facilities for a business of the desired scope.

There was an interesting case from the mid-1950's concerning acquisition of land for an expansion of US 50, initially planned as an expressway with at-grade intersections, in what is now suburban Johnson County.  The facility eventually built is now I-35.  KDOT's predecessor agency acquired land at a given intersection and the owners of the remainder believed they would get a driveway permit for a business they proposed to build on one corner.  Then, in 1953, the Kansas Legislature passed the access-control law, and the plan became to build a freeway, which of course is inconsistent with the granting of driveway permits, so the property owners sued.  I-35 exists partly because the state won in court.  (When the case was heard in Topeka, engineers with the federal BPR were sitting in the public gallery nervously taking notes, a précis of which forms part of the main I-35 Johnson County file at the NARA satellite facility in Kansas City.)

[route56]

There was an interesting case from the mid-1950's concerning acquisition of land for an expansion of US 50, initially planned as an expressway with at-grade intersections, in what is now suburban Johnson County.  The facility eventually built is now I-35. 

More specifically, It's I-35 from Old 56 north to the Shawnee Mission Parkway. That project also included Old 56 from Parker to the I-35 junction.