In 1964 the Italian government decided to build a motorway which connected the rest of Italy to Calabria, so far considered a kind of "Third Island" (together with Sicily and Sardinia), due to the nature of its terrain, which made it problematic to reach the region.

To solve the situation, the Italian government funded the construction of a new route which would remove the high gradients and sharp turns and enlarge the carriageway.

This required the construction of new tunnels and viaducts (among these the viadotto italia the highest in Italy) while keeping the traffic on the current motorway open.

[7][8] On 22 December 2016 the Salerno-Reggio Calabria freeway was declared complete, 20 years after the first renovation works started, with the opening of Larìa tunnel in Cosenza.

The entire road was constructed as a substandard freeway[11] by the mid-1970s and later an upgrade program from Naples to Reggio Calabria started in the early 1990s.

The southern segment (Salerno-Reggio Calabria) is toll-free and is maintained by ANAS, the state agency for public routes.

Located in a mountainous area, it is prone to very high levels of traffic (especially at the start and at the end of holiday periods).

[13] A number of new junctions were also to be constructed, in some cases to service certain towns with no direct access at present.