SR 22 begins at the intersection of 7th Street and Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) in Long Beach.

It continues along the border of Orange and Santa Ana for 3 miles (4.8 km) until terminating at the Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55).

In late 2004, in response to California's budgetary deficit, OCTA began a widening project to add one mixed-flow and one high occupancy vehicle lane to the route in each direction, as well as reconfiguring and upgrading on and off ramps to contemporary standards at several interchanges, all funded by Measure M, the half-cent tax approved by Orange County voters in 1990 and later renewed in 2006.

This $700 million Design-Build projected completed in a record 2 year time frame in 2007 was led by consortium composed of Granite Construction and URS Corp. as the lead designer along with several sub-consultants.

Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage.