Then, when the route from Mpika to Nakonde and Tanzania (the Tanzam Highway) was upgraded in the 1960s and provided a good route through to Dar es Salaam and Arusha, this section became known as the Great North Road rather than the Mpika-Mbala section which might be referred to as the Old Great North Road.

The original Great North Road of Zambia continued from Mpika as the route northwards, through Kasama, to Mbala.

During the Rhodesian Bush War the border with Rhodesia was closed,[8] disrupting the importation of goods and fuel to landlocked Zambia and the export of copper.

[7] The Great North Road was the only route by which goods and fuel could be imported, from the port of Dar es Salaam.

[7] Later, the Tazama Pipeline, commissioned in 1968, and the TAZARA Railway, opened in 1975, meant the use of the Great North Road for the transport of cargo destined for Zambia was much reduced.