[1] This corridor was also highly traveled during westward expansion along the California and Oregon trails, it was also used by the Pony Express and first transcontinental railroad.

[3] The landscape is dominated by vast agricultural fields within the fertile Platte River valley across the center of the state, while the western portion passes through higher plains and the eastern portion through the rolling hills adjacent to the Missouri River valley.

[4] While US 30 has been mostly superseded by I-80 for long-haul travel across the state, it has been a major thoroughfare across Nebraska since the early 20th century, most notably as a central portion of the historic Lincoln Highway, an early transcontinental route from New York City to San Francisco that passed through Nebraska along the corridor that became US 30 once the route designations of the federal highway system were assigned in 1926.

To showcase the historic importance of this early route across the state, the entire length of US 30 across Nebraska has been designated as the Lincoln Highway Scenic and Historic Byway, one of nine scenic byways designated by the Nebraska Department of Roads throughout the state.

After passing through Bushnell, it enters Kimball, where it meets Old Highway 71 near the center of town.

On the east side of Kimball, US 30 passes beneath the new Nebraska Highway 71 (N-71) bypass with access provided via Connecting Link 53E.

At the eastern end of Sidney, it meets US 385, and it remains concurrent with that highway through Lodgepole to Chappell.

US 30 passes through Gibbon, Shelton, Wood River (where it meets N-11), and Alda before entering Grand Island, all of these on an alignment which generally goes northeasterly.

It goes through downtown Grand Island on a pair of one-way streets, then goes northeast toward Columbus through Chapman before entering Central City.

US 30 then becomes a two-lane highway east of Schuyler through Rogers and meets N-79 in North Bend.