As traffic on boulevard began to increase in the 1950s and 1960s, many plans were introduced to improve the highway. Ideas ranged from widening the highway to building a new expressway to current day I-79. During the 1960s, a southern extension of the boulevard to Pittsburgh's North Side was discussed and by 1973 the highway opened from the Fort Duquesne Bridge to Ridge Avenue and the McKees Rocks Bridge to Beaver Avenue and Chateau Street. Many of these proposals would fall to the wayside because of lack of funding and interest or community protest. The missing gap which includes a connection to the West End Bridge did not open until January 1992.