As Missouri counts down to the day when U.S. 36 will be four lanes across the entire state, attention rightly turns to Kansas.

Supporters of road projects know that they can take decades to see to completion. They also know the numbers are mind-numbing — in the millions of dollars for relatively small sections of highway, in the hundreds of millions of dollars for major improvements.

And yet, everyone has to start somewhere. We are pleased to see that Kansans, amid soaring prices for fuel and materials, recognize this and are doing their part to advance the dream of a four-lane U.S. 36 from Denver to Chicago.

We long have campaigned for a future limited-access U.S. 36 to eventually be designated as a new addition to the interstate highway system, on par with Interstate 70 or Interstate 29. But we need the road before anyone can apply for the designation.

At last week’s meeting of the U.S. 36 Highway Association in Washington, Kan., president Steve Haynes of Oberlin, Kan., had some good news to report:

Of the 13 counties along the highway’s path in Kansas, so far 10 have agreed to pay $2,000 each for a Docking Institute of Fort Hays State University study to help determine the feasibility of widening the highway to four lanes from Wathena west to Belleville and of upgrading the highway to “super two” standards from Belleville to the Colorado line.

The funding is critical at this time as the group prepares to make its case for other investments, particularly from the Kansas Legislature. The state’s lawmakers are expected to draft a new highway program in the coming session.

Mr. Haynes noted that the effort to improve U.S. 36 could take 50 or more years to succeed. He could be right, but progress can come in spurts. Just ask Missourians, who are about to witness the completion of the remaining 52 miles of four-lane highway on U.S. 36 between Macon and Hannibal.

That work is to be wrapped up by December 2009. By one estimate, traffic on the four lanes is expected to pick up 10 percent or more in five years, bolstering the economies of cities and towns across the length of the state.

That’s reason enough to keep working on the Kansas projects, no matter how long the time frame. The payoff promises to be great.