[2] The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officially designated the new freeway section as part of SH 225 on August 25, 1954, with the western terminus now at State Highway 35.

The city of Houston refused to sell the right-of-way, so TxDOT acquired it via condemnation, triggering a lawsuit by Milby's daughter that was resolved in 1961.

[2] The extension was originally proposed in a 1960 traffic study, with the aim of relieving congestion on the Gulf Freeway.

The alternate route would skirt the neighborhood, running near the Houston Ship Channel and Buffalo Bayou.

As planning continued, opposition developed over both the original route and a short-lived 1979 proposal by the Texas Turnpike Authority to make the freeway a tollway.

The freeway enters Pasadena and passes through the northern portions of the city as it runs to the south of the Houston Ship Channel.

It continues east to the Sam Houston Tollway before it enters the city limits of Deer Park.