In 1949, plans were made to build a four-lane bridge across Tulpehocken Creek at Warren Street. As part of this plan, Warren Street was to be widened from the proposed bridge to Schuylkill Avenue. This widened Warren Street was envisioned to become part of a bypass route of Reading for US 222. The bridge and widening were approved with the provision that Warren Street only be widened as far as Schuylkill Avenue as not to build a bypass route through a residential area. Construction on the bridge and the Warren Street Bypass between US 422 (Harrisburg Pike, now Penn Avenue) and PA 83 (now PA 183, Schuylkill Avenue) began in 1950. In 1953, the Park Avenue Extension (which extended Park Avenue in Wyomissing to the bypass) and the Warren Street Bypass from US 422 in Wyomissing to Tulpehocken Creek, along with the Tulpehocken Creek bridge, was finished, with a continuation of the Warren Street Bypass northeast from PA 83 to US 222 (Allentown Pike, now 5th Street Highway) proposed. Construction on the extension of the Warren Street Bypass to US 222 began in 1956 with the process of widening of the existing Warren Street. The PA 83 bridge over the bypass was built in 1957. In 1959, the Warren Street Bypass extension to US 222 was opened to traffic with the portion of Warren Street between Tulpehocken Creek and PA 83 widened to four lanes. The Warren Street Bypass included an interchange with the under-construction Reading Bypass (now US 422, West Shore Bypass) southwest of Tulpehocken Creek when it opened in 1959. On November 15, 1975, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) approved for US 222 to be routed to bypass Reading, with the route following US 422 along the West Shore Bypass between Lancaster Avenue and the Warren Street Bypass and the Warren Street Bypass between the West Shore Bypass and Allentown Pike. The former alignment of US 222 through Reading between the West Shore Bypass and the Warren Street Bypass received the US 222 Bus. designation.