The 5.9-mile-long (9.5 km)[1] route would have begun at the Downtown Connector (I-75/I-85) and used the highway that is now State Route 410 (SR 410) east to the interchange with the also-proposed SR 400.

There, it would have turned north to end at I-85 near SR 236 (Lindbergh Drive).

SR 410, the Stone Mountain Freeway, would continue east beyond the I-285 perimeter highway, and SR 400 would extend both south and north outside the perimeter.

A short piece of I-485/SR 410 was constructed from I-75/I-85 east to Boulevard Northeast.

[3] Activists in the neighborhood of Morningside, along the SR 400 portion of I-485, were the first to fight the road, although opposition surfaced in a number of nearby surrounding neighborhoods.