For three decades, Crawford County leaders across political and municipal lines have remained in lockstep on precisely two things: that Southeast Kansas needs a four-lane highway, and that highway should take an unencumbered route about a mile and a half west of Frontenac and Pittsburg. Dubbed the Crawford County Corridor, this long-gestating expansion of Highway 69 has been at the foundation of county growth efforts ranging from Frontenac's Sugar Creek Industrial Park to the brand new Fed-Ex distribution facility near the Crawford/Cherokee line. This western corridor has been on KDOT maps dating back to 2006.