The interstate, which was built in the late 1970s and early 1980s (with the southern section from downtown completed in 1979 and the northern section from downtown to the northern portion of I-29 completed in 1986), was intended to revive St. Joseph's downtown which had been seeing its businesses migrate to shopping malls along U.S. Route 169 (also known as the Belt Highway) about two miles (3 km) east of downtown near I-29. I-29 initially had been designed to bypass developed areas of St. Joseph but its construction spurred development near the interstate on the city's east side.