While the Watkins Drive parkway was being built in Kansas City, the north end of the route changed as new sections opened. That explains this sign assembly, photographed at Brush Creek Boulevard in 1998. At the time, Watkins Drive ended at Brush Creek. Anyone wishing to continue on US 71 had to make a jog a couple of blocks to the west to pick up the historic route of US 71 along Prospect Avenue.
Watkins Drive was completed in 2001, and now carries the US 71 designation along its full length, replacing Prospect Avenue.