The original alignment north of Nepean Street was repurposed for local traffic only, still known today as Greensborough Road.

[6] Construction on the northern half, the 3 km section between Grimshaw Street and Diamond Creek Road, started in 1985[7] and opened in March 1988;[8] construction on the southern half, the 2 km section between Grimshaw and Lenola Streets, started in late 1985,[9] and opened in September 1989.

Around this time, the road north of Grimshaw Street was progressively widened and duplicated, with the final section being a new bridge over the Plenty River, completed in 2005.

In recent years, Greensborough Highway has become extremely congested, with sections of the road carrying upwards of 60,000 vehicles per day.

The North East Link project, announced in 2016, aims to fix these problems by creating a freeway-grade connection and road tunnels between the Metropolitan Ring Road and Eastern Freeway in Bulleen, aiming to take vehicles off Greensborough Highway and also involves significant reworking of the northern section of the route.