[1] The road starts at Mariakani, on the Nairobi–Mombasa Highway, approximately 34 kilometres (21 mi) northwest of Mombasa.
[2] From Mariakani, the road takes a northeasterly direction through Kaloleni to end at Mavueni, having a total distance of approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi).
It forms an alternative entry into Tsavo National Park for tourists from Kenya's north coast.
[6] Beginning circa 2006,[4] the government of Kenya, through the Kenya National Highway Authority, began upgrading this road from bitumen surface to class II bitumen with shoulders, culverts and drainage channels.
Sometime prior to February 2016, the Mariakani to Kaloleni section was upgraded to bitumen surface.