East of Interstate 35, it intersects U.S. Route 77 in Winfield. It goes east from Winfield, then turns north to Burden, then goes east before going south to Elk City. It then turns east and goes through Independence after being concurrent with U.S. Route 75. It continues east, is briefly concurrent with U.S. Route 169 and then intersects U.S. Route 59 at Altamont. US-160 and US-59 then go into Oswego and separate. At Columbus, US-160 begins a concurrency with U.S. Route 69, which goes east to Crestline, then north to Frontenac, Kansas. Also at Crestline, it picks up a second concurrency with U.S. Route 400, which goes north and ends just south of Pittsburg, Kansas. After Frontenac, it turns east and enters Missouri.
The section of US-160 in Harper, from K-14 to slightly east of end of overlap with K-2 is maintained by the city.[3] The entire 2.601-mile (4.186 km) section within Wellington is maintained by the city.[4]
The section of US-160 from the Colorado border to Santa Fe was established in 1927 as K-46. The section from K-22, now US-83, south of Sublette east to Pittsburg was established in 1927 as K-12.[5] US-160 was extended into Kansas between 1930 and 1931, which resulted in K-46 being decommissioned and K-12 being truncated to US-54 north of Liberal.[2]
East of Coldwater, US-160 originally turned north to Wilmore then curved southwest and traveled through Sun City and Lake City to its current alignment west of Medicine Lodge. Then between 1941 and 1944, a new alignment was built to travel directly east–west from Coldwater to Medicine Lodge.[6][7] East of Independence, US-160 originally followed US-169 north to K-37 then east to US-400, which it followed to its current alignment south of Pittsburg. Then in a December 9, 1998 resolution, US-160 was realigned over K-96 from US-169 east to US-69 Alternate then turned north toward Pittsburg.[8][9][10]
Between 1951 and 1952, the alignment was shifted south between the Colorado border and Johnson.
^ abcRand McNally and Company (1931). "Kansas" (Map). Clason's Road Map of Kansas. 1:2,000,000. Denver: Clason Map Company. p. 87 – via Rumsey Collection.
^ abRand McNally and Company (1927). "Kansas" (Map). Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas of the United States and Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, with a Brief Description of the National Parks and Monuments. 1:1,600,000. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company. pp. 54–55. OCLC2078375. Retrieved July 27, 2020 – via Rumsey Collection.
^State Highway Commission of Kansas (1941). Kansas State Highway System(PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Topeka: State Highway Commission of Kansas. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
^State Farm Insurance Companies Travel Bureau (1944). "Kansas" (Map). State Farm Road map: Kansas. 1:1,235,520. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company. Retrieved July 28, 2020 – via Rumsey Collection.