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.