One of my favorite freeways in my hometown! :) They are planning to extend the freeway up to the Kansas 96 interchange so they are going to remove that strange trumpet turnpike interchange. They are also going to be replacing the I-235 cloverleaf interchange with fly overs soon.
It's not a bad place at all...the Old Town Marketplace in downtown has some fun bars, pubs and restaurants that get quite busy on Friday and Saturday nights. Thanks for dropping by and watching!
It's not too often you see FreewayBrent go into the Central Time Zone! 2015 has been a great year for you, and it's not done yet! Amazing how a city like Wichita has a freeway system like this, you captured them well! Great video as always!
+InterstateKyle : Interstate 135 is a really cool freeway, too. It has a wide canal running between the northbound & southbound lanes, and you get to see the fairly impressive I-135/US 54-400 interchange from the ground level. Indeed, Wichita is a pretty underrated driving city. Thanks for dropping by!
Just recently spent 2 weeks in Wichita on a Flight Safety course at ICT, flew back to UK 21st July. Loved it there and was real hot too. Great watching this for the memory, thanks FreewayBrent : )
You're very welcome! Feel free to check out my newest driving video, showcasing the ride into the heart of Auckland, New Zealand. It's the featured video on my channel. Cheers!
Probably never expected to see an edited time-lapsed driving video of nearby Wichita on RU-vid, huh? Lol. For a city of its size, Wichita has some pretty interesting freeway designs. Especially love the canal running in the middle of I-135...footage that I still need to get around to editing. Thanks for watching!
Very nice work in great lighting conditions. Wichita is a little better freeway city than most may think as evidenced by this video (had not seen the section east of I-135, very nice!), the canal in the media of I-135 is also a pretty cool feature. The soundtrack fit well, thumbs up!
+Freewayjim : Thanks, dude! As I'm finding out, that section east of I-135 was only completed in the last decade. Apparently, parts of it were just an at-grade city boulevard before the upgrades. Maybe I'll feature my I-135 footage next...but it'll depend on finding a song that I like, lol.
+eluko79 : FreewayBrent in Kansas...who would've thunk it? lol. Glad you enjoyed. If you're ever in Wichita, I-135 is actually a pretty neat freeway too; a massive canal runs between the northbound and southbound lanes, and you get to see the I-135/US 54-400 interchange from the ground level...it's pretty interesting stuff.
Wow, that is so cool that someone did an AWESOME freeway video in my home city! Thanks to my job moving to the west side of the city from the southeast side, I now drive the Kellogg freeway everyday. I can tell you that where the video ended at the turnpike exit, that is now getting ready to change drastically. Construction is now ramping up for major freeway extension for the next few miles clear to the K-96 interchange which should also be a new interchange when fully done that will also connect to I-35/Kansas turnpike.Major construction has also started on the west side of the city at the Kellogg/I-235 interchange. They are FINALLY getting rid of that nasty and dangerous cloverleaf/diamond interchange and they are now starting to put in the large bridge girders for flyover ramps. This project will be done in 2 phases. The first phase will be completed in 2019 with brand new flyover ramps thus eliminating those tight turns on to either highway. It should be 3 levels upon completion similar to the I-135 interchange. Then sometime in the next decade when they get enough money for the 2nd phase, more and larger flyover ramps will be added making it a four level interchange and possibly the largest interchange in the state of Kansas. I look forward to that one :)
+Defiant6 : Hey there! I did see your comment over a week ago, but I was in the process of flying back from Australia. I actually just released a brand new video of one of Australia's best freeways, heading into Melbourne, in case you want to check it out. As for this particular video...I had fun driving this freeway. A bit unexpected for me when I pulled into town last May, but I thought Wichita has some pretty nice (and interesting) freeways. I have I-135 footage as well...might work on that footage in the 2nd quarter of 2016...thought the viaducts running alongside the canal was pretty neat.
Looks like I should personally pay more attention to Eastern Kansas now; not only the old school I-235 Interchange seen in this vid, but also the I-435/35 Interchange in Overland Park are becoming even more legit stacks with AT LEAST the latter already prepped for a 4th level flyover (lots of super wide shoulders on the WB collector road for K-10 seem to suggest yet another phase of improvement to come soon)...
Wichita is definitely worth a visit from a road-interest perspective. The canal running in between the northbound and southbound lanes of I-135 is definitely quite neat too!
This freeway ends at Webb Rd. on the east side of town but there is currently a huge project underway extending it to the K-96 interchange. If you ask me, KDOT should extend the freeway all the way to Augusta to join up with the freeway on 54 that starts on the other end of that town. I've lived all over this area of Kansas. This is home to me.
+AsphaltPlanet1 : Yeah...the only thing I really knew in advance before driving this, was the fact that it was the busiest freeway in southern Kansas, at just a shade under 100,000 vehicles per day through downtown. I was pleasantly surprised at how modern (and interesting) parts of this freeway are. Thanks for watching!
I know this is 3 years old, but at the time the freeway ended at I-35 and the highway continued as a simple 4 lane road, which was a horrible bottleneck during peak times. That signal was actually for the access road, which looped around. In 2016, a project was started to complete the freeway to the east edge of town (it's about done now). The signaled intersection is now removed entirely and now the only way to access I-35 is from the eastbound access road. You have to get off at the Towne East Drive/Armour/Rock exit to get to it.
This is WAAAAY nicer, than I imagined US 54 and 400 would be like! Never been to Wichita, so it's neat to see this video of 54/400. For whatever reason, I was under the impression that it was mostly a multilane highway that had a lot of stoplights, but I didn't realize a great portion of it(as shown in this vid) had been upgraded to freeway standard. Wouldn't be surprised if eventually KDOT expanded the freeway part on the east further where you saw traffic lights, one of these days. And I agree with you that KDOT did a great job with landscaping, towards the end of this video. Great work! You REALLY should upload your I-135 footage, btw. I've seen just no Wichita expressway videos online, so I'd love to see your footage of it!
Yeah...I was pleasantly surprised to see how nice of a freeway this is, back when I drove it in May of 2015. KDOT is currently extending the freeway a few miles further to the west, and rebuilding the interchange at I-235. I think there's longer-term plans to extend the freeway further east as well. Thanks for dropping by and commenting!
You're welcome, Brent. Good to hear KDOT has plans to improve US 54/400 further east and west, since that was the sense I got from watching this video. Particularly with how well they landscaped that part, towards the east end of the current US 54/400 expressway.
I thought it will be upgrade of US-54 into Interstate 54 from I-70 in Kingdom City (Fulton) Missouri to I-40 in Tucumcari New Mexico, including Jefferson City, Missouri's State Capitol and Wichita Kansas. Hope it is I-54 in the future. We need more of 50s of interstate numbering designations. We already have I-55, I-57, and I-59 in the Midwestern and Southern States. In Kentucky they wanted I-50 from Chesapeake Virginia to Southern Kentucky, including Cumberland Parkway and Hal Rogers Parkway in Kentucky, since there is no KY-50 anywhere in the state. Kentucky is also have another future interstate, which is I-58, known as Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway from east of Lexington to Prestonsburg and even into West Virginia in a 2020s, since West Virginia does not have WV-58 anywhere in the state.
+astey highways (Autostrada): Indeed! Believe it or not, there was actually stop-and-go traffic conditions in the westbound direction, just 30 minutes prior to recording this video. The only freeway for hundreds of miles in every direction, that actually experiences a real rush hour period. This freeway carries just under 100,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point. Thanks for watching!
Yeah, the local office for Kansas' Department of Transportation does a good job of prioritizing litter removal and landscaping. I can't really say the same about the local CalTrans office here!
Yes, especially since they didn’t want to have freeways running through their cities in the first place. But they were soon forced to in the 1980s and 90s and they made their freeways look nice.
When I was going to Wichita State in the early 2000's, the freeway was being rebuilt from 135 to the east as an at grade major cross-town avenue to the freeway. It was a horrible pain in the ass to drive the couple of years I was there. It looks like a much better drive now than it did then.
+PurpleWorldOrder : I was curious as to when the section, east of I-135, was rebuilt. I wasn't sure if it was formerly an at-grade city boulevard, or was an oudated freeway that happened to be constructed into a more modern facility. The final product came out GREAT. Had a blast driving through there. Surprised I featured a video from Wichita? lol.
+TheSolarcatcher: Indeed. At first, I wanted to drive it...only because I knew it was the busiest freeway in southern Kansas (about 100,000 vpd), so I knew there would be something of a "rush" factor, if I drove it at peak hours. But...then I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the stretch east of I-135 was, so it became a "must-record" video for me. I-135 is pretty awesome, too...there's a huge canal running in between the 2 directions.
Not sure if Kansas or one of those smaller freeways in Texas... That junction to the turnpike from the end of the freeway looks pretty awkward. KDOT have something up their sleeve to fix that soon?
+Schwenda Productions: I honestly have no idea. I do know that, east of that intersection, traffic counts drop down quite a bit, so it's probably not a high-priority project to upgrade it to a full freeway-to-freeway interchange at this time. West of where the video started, KDOT is gearing up to extended the freeway westward by several miles...that section is much more heavily used, and gets pretty badly congested during peak hours. Should be an awesome upgrade, when it's all said and done!
FreewayBrent it just looked like an awkward ending since it's likely a good fraction of traffic wanting to go to/from Wichita on the Turnpike would probably use that exit at the end of the video.
+Brenden Schneider : I started my channel, back in 2009. I think it's come a long way, from the very first video, in which I didn't have a clue about video (or sign editing).
+Colin Stuart : Hey there, Colin. I'm not sure, but I would suspect that it's because the exit for Edwards & Meridian used to be Kansas state route, that was more recently decommissioned and brought under control of the City of Wichita. I could be wrong, but that's my assumption.
+Alex Jirgens : Yes way, lol. I also recorded I-135...I just haven't found a song that matches the scenery and the length of the video, so I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing the I-135 video.
+FreewayBrent Hopefully soon! I wanna see what you recorded. I live in Manhattan now (attending K-State), but my best friend and Dad's side of the family live in the Air Capital. I know those roads VERY well.
+Alex Jirgens I assume you went to Kansas City as well? My Mom's side of the family lives there, and spent the first 6 years of my life living in and around there.
+Alex Jirgens : I did not. :-( I really wanted to, but I had to bail out of Kansas later that day, due to the threat of severe thunderstorms and possible tornado watches/warnings, within 24 hours.
Or Maybe Interstate 46 from Interstate 44 somewhere in Missouri to Somewhere at least in Colorado or past. But I don’t think it’s happening since it’s not an extremely busy corridor overall, only in and a few miles west of Wichita.
Hey. I am thinking about doing a few roadway videos from my area (Northern Minnesota). But, I'm not sure what kind of dash mount I should be looking at for my truck. I have a Sony HDR-CX430 model camcorder. I'm wondering if you have any advice. What kinds of products would you recommend to mount a camcorder? Thanks :)
+Josh.0: Howdy. I use a heavy-duty Manfrotto tripod and place it on the passenger floor, while stabilizing the feet and legs so that the tripod stays pretty steady. However, I'm not sure how a tripod might fare in a truck. The main thing is to make sure that camcorder has excellent image stabilization; you won't really know, until you actually put it to the test and film. If you have a laptop, I strongly suggest bringing it with you...get on the freeway, record a test video for 2 to 3 miles...then pull over at an exit and render your footage at 4x on your video editing software, to see how the footage looks. This is what I do, every time I setup my camcorder and tripod, so that the picture looks level, before I start recording. Nothing worse than recording for dozens or hundreds of miles in a day, only to analyze your footage at home and realize your camcorder was lopsided, or aimed too high/too low. For me, the real luxury I have with using the Flip Ultra 3rd generation camcorder, is that it has both amazing horizontal and vertical image stabilization, so beyond securing the tripod legs, there's really not much else I need to do.
