The Greville Road interchange was until 1999 the northern terminus, with the current northbound entrance and exit ramps following the old formation down to the roundabout intersection with Albany Highway.

Coming off the bridge, the road turns sharply to head eastwards towards the Auckland city centre.

The automated toll plaza uses automatic number-plate recognition to identify the vehicle: the number plate is optically read and details checked against the New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA) database, any pre-payment made or account open for that particular vehicle.

If the computer system needs assistance in recognising plates or for any other reason, data is sent to the NZTA office in Palmerston North for human analysis.

On its opening day, 51,000 vehicles crossed the Harbour Bridge, with southbound traffic backing up for 10 km north of the toll plaza (near the present Stafford Road exit) with vehicles wishing to cross the bridge for the first time.

[5] Initially, the Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority owned and operated the motorway between Fanshawe Street and the toll plaza, while the National Roads Board (the predecessor to the New Zealand Transport Agency) operated the remainder of the motorway from the toll plaza to Northcote Road.

During the motorway's construction and widening, large sections of Smiths Bush, a remnant kahikatea and taraire forest, were destroyed.

This allowed motorway traffic a clear run from Tristram Avenue to St Stephens, on the northern side of the Bombay Hills.

In 1979, the Northern Motorway was extended northward to Sunset Road, near the present Constellation Drive interchange.

A new interchange was then created at Upper Harbour Highway and Constellation Drive to replace the Sunset Road intersection.

[8] The Victoria Park Tunnel project was completed in early 2012 having been opened earlier in the year.

[11] The contract for the section from Puhoi to Warkworth was awarded in November 2016 under a public-private partnership[12] and was opened in June 2023.

The first section of the 6.2 km bus rapid transit lanes opened in January 2008, and runs along the eastern side of the motorway between Constellation busway station (near the Constellation Drive interchange) and Akoranga busway station (near the Esmonde Road interchange).

An additional 2.5 km southbound bus lane, opened in 2009, runs from Akoranga station to the Harbour Bridge approaches at the Onewa Road interchange.