It goes northwest into the city of Robbinsdale, intersecting with CR 9 (42nd Avenue) and has an interchange MN 100.

In Maple Grove it intersects with Zachary Lane North, CR 30 (93rd Avenue), CR 130 (Elm Creek Boulevard), MN 610, Fernbrook Lane and Maple Grove Parkway.

CR 81, between the Robbinsdale and Minneapolis border and present-day US 169 in Brooklyn Park, was constructed between the late 1940s and 1950s.

Also, in Maple Grove, a reconstruction project near Fernbrook Lane, Elm Creek Boulevard, and Maple Grove Parkway was completed, reconstructing the Fernbrook Lane intersection and adding new intersections at Elm Creek Boulevard and Maple Grove Parkway, when Elm Creek Boulevard was extended and Maple Grove Parkway was paved to its reconstructed interchange with I-94.

Rapid bus transit was originally considered for this corridor in the early 2000s.

The goals of this project are to improve the safety and operations along the roadway, changes will be made to existing access.

Construction of Segment One (47th Avenue North in Robbinsdale to CR 10/Bass Lake Road in Crystal) began in 2010, and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2012.

[2] Also the construction of Segment Two (CR 81/Bass Lake Road in Crystal to 63rd Avenue North in Brooklyn Park) is partially funded, and expected to begin in 2012.