KANORADO, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials and a granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the completion of Interstate 70 across the state.
Mary Eisenhower joined state Transportation Secretary Julie Lorenz and other dignitaries in unveiling a new highway sign for east-bound I-70 as it leaves Colorado during an event near the border. The sign welcomes motorists to Kansas, notes that it was President Eisenhower’s home and commemorates the June 17, 1970 completion of I-70.
President Eisenhower pushed for construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. He’d been a young lieutenant colonel in 1919, when it took a convoy of Army vehicles two months to cross the U.S. He served as president from 1953 to 1961, and the Kansas Department of Transportation’s headquarters building in Topeka is named for him.
The first stretch of I-70 just west of Topeka was completed in 1956, and building the full route through Kansas took 14 years. KDOT spokeswoman Jeanny Sharp said the agency waited to mark the 50th anniversary of I-70′s completion until its sign was ready.