Another branch of the Bothell Road, from Bothell to the Stevens Pass Highway (Primary State Highway 15) in Monroe, was proposed by the state good roads association in the late 1930s. In 1941, funding for this segment was rejected by the state senate, in favor of completing the highway between Everett and Monroe first. The Bothell-Monroe Cutoff was designated as a branch of Primary State Highway 15 in 1943, with a provision that the highway would be constructed after the completion of the Everett-Monroe route. The King County government also unsuccessfully lobbied in the early 1950s for a highway connecting Duvall to Skykomish along the Tolt River as an alternative to the Monroe cutoff. Construction of the highway was pushed back to 1961, and it was further delayed by rainy weather. The Bothell-Monroe Cutoff opened on February 10, 1965, costing $5.3 million (equivalent to $ million in 2019 dollars) and cutting 20 minutes in travel time between Seattle and the Stevens Pass ski area.