Traffic volumes on I-495 had grown steadily through the 1960s, growing twenty percent in a three-year period between 1964 and 1967. By the late 1960s, some sections of the highway could no longer handle the amount of traffic that used it each day, and average rush-hour speeds were about . Major chokepoints existed at the intersections of I-278, the Grand Central Parkway, I-678, I-295, and the Cross Island Parkway. Other bottlenecks existed in Elmhurst, Queens, where a westbound exit to Junction Boulevard was immediately adjacent to a westbound entrance from 108th Street.