It is part of the European roads E50, E58, E75, E442, E571 and of the V.A Pan-European corridor (Trieste) - Bratislava - Žilina - Košice - Uzhhorod - Lviv.

The first plans to connect Prague to Slovakia and Mukachevo in today's Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukraine, which was part of Czechoslovakia at that time, were in the 1930s.

Construction began in 1973, by building the Ivachnová - Liptovský Mikuláš section, a 15-kilometre-long (9.3 mi) segment in northern Slovakia.

A 14-kilometre-long (8.7 mi) section between Horná Streda - Nové Mesto nad Váhom opened in half-profile as a D61 in 1998, and was finished as the motorway D1 in full profile in 2000.

A 15.3-kilometre-long (9.5 mi) section between Nové Mesto nad Váhom - Chocholná also opened in half-profile as a D61 in 1998, and was subsequently finished as the D1 in full profile in 2000.

[8] The construction of the sections Hubová - Ivachnová (Ružomberok bypass), which should be completed in 2025, and Lietavská Lúčka - Dubná Skala with the Višňové tunnel (Žilina bypass), which, after delays,[9] should be completed in 2026, is currently underway,[10] with €125 million allocated from the European Union[11] for the Hubová - Ivachnová section.

The commissioning of the motorway along the entire length of the route cannot be expected before 2040 in view of the current intentions of the Ministry of Transport.

This is a list of tunnels as seen when moving from west to east: Content in this edit is translated from the existing Slovak Wikipedia article at sk:Diaľnica D1 (Slovensko); see its history for attribution.