The highway serves as a direct connection to the town of Clearwater, and also is a shortcut.

It heads north through the flat farmland of the prairies to cross a bridge over Cypress Creek (closed since 2016, signed detour in place via Road 71W, Road 9N, and the southernmost portion of PR 342) and pass along the eastern edge of Clearwater, where it has an intersection with PR 342 and makes a sharp curve to the east.

[2] Since 2016, PTH 3A has been split into two segments, both meeting a dead end at Cypress Creek.

The bridge was a concrete version of a Bowstring arch truss, originally built between 1919 and 1920 by the Winnipeg construction firm of Alex Gall and Company.

In deteriorating condition, the bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 2016 and was demolished in spring 2018.