The expressway also serves as a major utility corridor, carrying various high-voltage power lines and water pipelines across the densely populated areas of Parañaque and Las Piñas.

[2] The Manila–Cavite Expressway follows a mostly curving route on the southwestern shore of Manila Bay, and the Bacoor–Kawit extension is built on reclaimed land near the coastal barangays of Bacoor.

The expressway starts at the traffic light intersection with NAIA Road, Roxas Boulevard, and New Seaside Drive in Barangay Tambo.

Past the toll plaza, it meets a right-in/right-out interchange with the Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) Extension, accessible only for northbound motorists.

[5] In 1973, under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, they proposed a planned highway, dubbed the Manila Bay Coastal Road Project, and its route would be started at the CCP Complex near the Manila-Pasay Boundary to Bacoor.

[6] The Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP), now the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC), entered into a contract with the Republic of the Philippines, represented by the then Department of Public Highways (DPH), now the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), dated November 20, of that year, for the construction of the Manila-Cavite Coastal Road and the reclamation of some portions of the foreshore and off-shore lands along Manila Bay at the PNCC's own expense, otherwise known as the Manila-Cavite Coastal Road and Reclamation Project (MCCRRP).

[7] In response to the daily traffic congestion in the narrow passage between Parañaque and Las Piñas leading to Cavite, the government later constructed a 6.6-kilometer (4.1 mi), four-lane (two on each side) asphalt reclaimed road from Roxas Boulevard leading to the then-municipalities of Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Bacoor which opened in 1985.

The MOU provided, among others, the construction and completion of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and the expansion, extension, and modernization of other roadways and tollway systems.

The project is a major component of a vast network of inter-urban roads traversing six municipalities, namely Parañaque, Las Piñas, Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, and Noveleta.

Under the agreement, PEATC is to undertake and perform the obligations of PEA, which principally provides the operation and maintenance of the toll roads or any of its segments.

In December 2012, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation acquired Cavitex Holdings Inc. for P6.77 billion, and the company assumed management assistance on January 2, 2013.

[13] On February 7, 2004, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo led the groundbreaking rites for the extension called Segment 4.

However, due to difficulties in transporting equipment and the flyover's location between the northbound and southbound parts of the expressway, the completion date was moved to August 2018.

The flyover eliminated the signalized intersection for vehicles bound for Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard via Pacific Avenue and improved traffic around it.

[17] In 2024, PEATC demanded the turnover of the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the expressway from the Cavitex Infrastructure Corporation, and the company belied the claims of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) in the mandamus case filed before the Court of Appeals (CA) for the return of the CAVITEX.

[18][19] In May of that year, PEATC insisted on its right to control the management and collection of fees amid a row with another company that already reached the Court of Appeals.

The CIC said all the costs of the private concessionaire will have to be refunded if PEATC, a government-owned and controlled corporation, insists on taking over the CAVITEX operations.

[28][29][30][31][32] The CAVITEX-CALAX Link (a.k.a CCLINK), is a 1.3-kilometer (0.81 mi) elevated connector road from Kawit to the greater Calabarzon that will connect CAVITEX and Cavite–Laguna Expressway (CALAX) is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

In 2018, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation submitted a proposal to the Toll Regulatory Board to extend the expressway from Kawit to Noveleta, as well as an extension further west up to Tanza and north up to Cavite City.

[39] A proposal to extend the expressway from Kawit to Sangley Point Airport in Cavite City was submitted to the Department of Public Works and Highways in 2017 by CAVITEx Holdings, Inc.