Interstate 69 in Indiana
The original plan (in a DEIS prepared by INDOT in 2004, but later dropped) was for I-69 to leave the now-former I-164 alignment somewhere just east of Green River Road (exit 3) and head south (instead of turning west with I-164) for approximately before crossing the Ohio at a point near the mouth of the Green River. This portion of the route had not then been funded, as construction of the new Ohio River crossing and its approaches in both states was expected to cost approximately $800 million. Indiana and Kentucky officials had said construction on the new Ohio River Bridge would not begin until at least 2020, after two new crossings near Louisville were completed. With Indiana then preparing to break ground on SIU 3, Kentucky officials indicated that collecting tolls might be the only feasible option for completing the I-69 bridge, as traditional federal and state funding for such projects were drying up. , neither Kentucky nor Indiana officials had yet come up with the money to plan and construct this I-69 bridge.
Interstate 69 in Michigan
The first planning maps from 1947 for what later became the Interstate Highway System did not include a highway along I-69's route; instead a highway further west connecting South Bend, Indiana, with Kalamazoo was included. This alternative highway was maintained on the 1955 plan for the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways", and numbered I-67 in August 1957. By June 1958, this freeway had been shifted further east and renumbered I-69, connecting Indianapolis, Indiana, with Marshall; no connections north and east to Lansing, Flint or Port Huron were planned as part of the Interstate Highway System. Around the same time, a section of M-146 near Port Huron was converted into an approach freeway for the Blue Water Bridge.