The highway has several names as it runs through residential and commercial areas of the west side of Detroit and into the suburb of Southfield.

[4] As a state trunkline highway, the roadway is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and it includes approximately 18.5 miles (29.8 km) of freeway.

At the intersection with Woodward Avenue, M-10 transitions onto the John C. Lodge Freeway, which runs under Huntington Place, home of the North American International Auto Show each January.

[2][5] M-10 runs for about two miles (3.2 km) on this due westward course before it intersects Wyoming Avenue and turns northwest.

The frontage roads change names from John C. Lodge Service Drive to James Couzens Freeway at the Wyoming Avenue interchange.

[11] In the initial allocation of numbers, M-10 was assigned to a highway that started at the Ohio state line south of Monroe, ran northeasterly along Telegraph Road into Dearborn and turned easterly into Detroit.

Then M-10 ran along the Saginaw Bay to Standish and turned to follow the Lake Huron shoreline, with some substantial deviations inland.

[13] The second iteration of M-10 was designated in 1929 on a much shorter segment of the original M-10 through the Flint area, serving as a business connection for the city as the through route, US 10, bypassed it on the east.

[20][21] During the 1950s, the Lodge Freeway was proposed to run from Detroit as far as the Fenton–Clio Expressway (US 23) at Fenton[22] and was to play a significant role in the city’s greater plan for urban renewal.

Ardent supporters of freeway construction, such as Mayor Albert Cobo, argued that improved access to the city's downtown from the suburbs and outer residential areas would allow for the easy transportation of goods, services, and workers, ultimately bolstering the city's economy.

Although Detroit city planners were careful to not disrupt middle-class White residential areas in construction, they showed little concern for Black neighborhoods, especially those that stood in the way of the main thoroughfare into downtown, which were small.

[23] The first three-mile (4.8 km) stretch of the Lodge Freeway leveled large portions of the densely populated Lower West Side, the increasingly Black area bordering Twelfth Street, and a 15-block area of mixed Black and Jewish bordering Highland Park.

[23] The construction of the freeway partitioned communities in half and by 1950, 423 single family residences, 109 businesses, 22 manufacturing plants, and 93 vacant lots had been condemned.

[25] Engineers at the time rejected the conventional design to connect two freeways, the cloverleaf as too hazardous, instead initially preferring a rotary interchange.

[34] Between September 5 and December 5, 1961, the Lodge Freeway's partial interchange with Greenlawn Avenue was closed on a 90-day trial basis, due to concerns from local citizens over an exit leading directly into a residential area.

[35][36] When the trial basis expired, the Detroit Streets and Traffic Commission ruled to keep the ramps permanently closed.

[49] The section of Northwestern Highway under state control between the West Bloomfield Township–Farmington Hills border into Southfield was numbered M-4 in 1979.

[46][47] By the next year however, the southern end of M-10 was moved to the corner of Jefferson and Randolph, placing all of the Lodge Freeway as part of M-10.

[47][51] From 2006 to 2007, the Lodge underwent major reconstruction to ease traffic congestion in the metro area, temporarily closing down much of the freeway.

[52] The $133 million project (equivalent to $188 million in 2023[28]) included concrete pavement reconstruction and rehabilitation, new barrier walls, repairs or replacements to 50 bridges, upgrades to 22 ramps, utility upgrades, and replacement of freeway signs between Lahser Road in Southfield and Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.

[53] Starting in 1924, officials in southeastern Michigan proposed building a highway from Detroit to run northwesterly across the state to Ludington, bisecting the angle created by Woodward and Grand River avenues.

[54] The freeway segment northwest of Wyoming Avenue to the county line was previously known as James Couzens Highway after the street it replaced.

[56] The singer, who died the previous year, got her start in Detroit singing at a local church before embarking on a six-decade career that earned her 18 Grammy awards.