Wichita ? In the past decade, U.S. 50 has seen a number of improvements that made it safer in some areas. Still, four years after nine people were killed on the highway near Peabody in a series of accidents in construction zones, U.S. 50 remains one of the most dangerous two-lane highways in the state.

“It’s nerve-racking to drive. Two lanes. Big old trucks going by at 65 or 70 mph,” said Sen. Les Donovan, a Wichita Republican who is a member of a task force that is beginning preparations for a new long-range transportation plan. “Cross winds. There’s not a lot of room for mistakes. We understand it’s a dangerous, dangerous road.”

Over the past five years, U.S. 50 has had the highest rate of head-on collisions among the state’s two-lane highways, and the heaviest volume of big trucks.

The 10-year transportation plan that is in its final year brought changes to the highway, including passing lanes and wider shoulders between Newton and Emporia.

But task force members say they don’t know if they will find any money to complete more new projects on U.S. 50 – or anywhere else.

“We spent a lot of money on 50, but it’s still not as safe as it could be,” Donovan said.

Traffic engineers estimate it would take $1.2 billion to turn U.S. 50 into a four-lane highway between Emporia and the Colorado border.

According to KDOT records, there were 17 traffic fatalities on U.S. 50 last year, which is 3.3 deaths per hundred million miles traveled.

Part of the problem with the highway is that a lot of trucks use it on their way to meatpacking plants in southwest Kansas, and many truckers use it to drive between Wichita and Kansas City to avoid tolls on the Kansas Turnpike.

A 54-year-old Hutchinson resident is the latest fatality on U.S. 50 after a tractor-trailer rammed her SUV as she was pulling onto the highway about 4 miles southeast of Hutchinson.

Jerry Younger, state transportation engineer and assistant KDOT secretary, said his agency had been asking local officials for projects they thought should be included in the next transportation plan. He said he expected heavy demand for new projects.

“For those people who use and live in proximity to the U.S. 50 corridor throughout the state, the prevalent theme is we need to make it a four-lane highway.”

But that’s not something that would come cheap, especially with questions about the economy and availability of federal tax dollars.

“The cost of concrete is much higher; the cost of asphalt is much higher; the cost of oil is up; the cost of steel. … All these things have gone up dramatically in price. The cost of roads and bridges has gone wild,” said Donovan, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

He said he couldn’t predict what the next transportation plan would look like.

“I wish I could tell you that I’ve got this all figured out, and that we’ll have a wonderful 10-year program,” he said. “But I don’t see it happening. We definitely have our work cut out for us.”