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 8
Construction continued with the issuing of a $6.55 million contract (about $ in dollars) to widen a section of I-8 through Alpine, from Harbison Canyon to east of West Victoria Drive, and to begin construction in April or May 1967, to be completed in 1969. This would leave only a stretch of I-8 that was not at freeway standards. As the process continued, concerns about increased smog from the additional traffic were raised in October 1967. A section to the east of Alpine was scheduled to have bidding opened in November of that year, and was to be finished in 1968; this would produce a continuous freeway from San Diego to the eastern terminus of this route. Both of these projects were underway by May 1968. An additional contract was given out for $7.8 million (about $ in dollars) in August to continue the freeway east from Alpine Street to Japatul Valley Road; this would bring the freeway near Descanso Junction. Roughly 5.5 million cubic yards of dirt and rock were to be generated by all three of these construction projects, since half of a mountain would have to be removed with a million pounds of dynamite. The third project was built near the site of an abandoned attempt to build a tunnel for the old highway after World War II, which proved to be too expensive.