Transurban considers the southern end of Cahill Expressway (including the Domain Tunnel) to be part of the Eastern Distributor, and denotes the latter to have a total length of 6 kilometres (4 mi).

The Eastern Distributor commences at the southern end of Cahill Expressway and the interchange with Cowper Wharf Road in Woolloomooloo and heads in a southerly direction as a dual-carriageway six-lane surface road, before entering piggyback tunnels shortly afterwards under the suburbs of Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst, with a subterranean interchange with the Cross City Tunnel for direct connections to the Western Distributor.

The project's centrepiece is the 1.7-kilometre (1.1 mi) piggyback tunnel under one of Australia's most densely populated urban areas, necessitated due to the requirement of three lanes in each direction within the existing roadway corridor.

In the main tunnel there is a central length of 0.5 kilometres (0.3 mi) where the span is typically greater than 17 metres (56 ft), and of note, there is no record of any road tunnel with spans greater than this where permanent roof support comprises rockbolts and shotcrete only and with vertical unsupported sidewalls of rock.

[8][7] The tunnels of the Eastern Distributor are fully equipped with lighting, ventilation, drainage, CCTV surveillance, fire fighting and emergency control systems.

With indications of a high level of community support, the Eastern Distributor project was revived by the New South Wales state government in 1994, based on the 1984 scheme.

[8][16] A study commissioned by the State Chamber of Commerce in 1997 found that the "Eastern Distributor would prevent 330 accidents a year and cut fuel consumption by 1.2 million litres annually".

[7] In May 1994, the state government gave approval for RTA to invite the private sector to tender to construct and operate the tollway under a build-own-operate-transfer arrangement.

[11] The Keating federal government announced on 15 December 1995 that it intended to withdraw taxation concessions on infrastructure bonds for urban road projects, "effective immediately".

[17] In a response letter written to the federal treasurer Ralph Willis in January 1996, the state treasurer Michael Egan highlighted that the policy would impact the M5 East and Eastern Distributor projects, and estimated that the policy would result in an "increase the cost of the Eastern Distributor project by between $70 million and $90 million".

[11] As a result, the announcement was "sufficient to halt the progress of the Eastern Distributor project" and the appointment of AML as the successful proponent was not formally endorsed.

The newly-elected Howard government reversed the policy in June 1996 and confirmed that the Eastern Distributor has been certified as "an urban road project which may utilise infrastructure bonds for financing purposes".

[11][17] Following the reversal of the federal government policy, on 13 August 1996 the appointment of AML as the successful proponent and the decision to proceed with the project was formally announced.

By March 1999, all digging had been completed, after 400,000 cubic metres (520,000 cu yd) of soil, largely Sydney sandstone was removed, equal to 40,000 truckloads.

[24] As part of the agreement which defined the 48 years of concession period, the motorway will be due to revert to government ownership on 23 July 2048.

Vehicles would regularly queue at the South Dowling Street/Cleveland Street intersection and spill back onto the motorway via the exit.

The trial closure saw significant improvements to traffic congestion along both South Dowling Street and the Eastern Distributor, and increase in speeds on both roads.

[41] The Eastern Distributor is tolled in the northbound direction only for all traffic that use the main tunnel (Surry Hills/Moore Park to Woolloomooloo).