It links the suburb of St Albans with Pineacres, south of Woodend, bypassing the outer suburban areas of Northcote, Redwood, Belfast, and Kaiapoi.

At its southern end, it connects with QEII drive where SH 74 continues east as an expressway, and links south to Cranford Street from where vehicles can access the City Centre.

The southern end of the motorway is being extended to QEII Drive in the Christchurch suburb of Mairehau; this extension forms part of SH 74.

The initial one kilometre section links to the official start of the motorway at a full diamond interchange with Queen Elizabeth II Drive where it becomes SH 74.

This short section of the motorway is six lanes wide to the Tram Road interchange, and the bridge incorporates cycling and walking connections.

In the mid-1990s, the motorway designation through St Albans was removed, with the planned extension now terminating at Queen Elizabeth II Drive.

This bypassed Main North Road through Belfast, Northwood, Redwood and Northcote to terminate at QEII Drive with a full diamond interchange.

Cranford Street was upgraded to four lanes from the new motorway terminus to the Innes Road intersection as a Christchurch City Council delivered project.

Projected congestion issues saw late changes to the motorway project, including the implementation of a T2 Transit lane southbound on the inner motorway lane, and changes to local roads in St Albans to discourage rat running, and encourage public transport uptake.