Portions of Highway 102 south of the Halifax International Airport pass through several microclimates and are notorious for frequent variations in visibility due to fog caused by elevation changes.

The original portion of the highway from Dutch Village Road to Fall River was opened in October 1958, the bicentennial year of the First General Assembly of Nova Scotia (1758); as such, it is the oldest section of controlled access highway in Atlantic Canada.

A new grade-separated interchange serving the Halifax International Airport opened in the 1972/73 fiscal year.

The C$17-million project, at the time the most expensive-ever undertaking by the former Department of Highways, stretches from Trunk 14 in Milford to Commo Road, and served to bypass the towns of Shubenacadie and Stewiacke.

Upon completion in 1979/80, this left the section of Highway 102 between Bedford and Waverley the only remaining undivided segment.

[8] An interchange serving the new Bayers Lake Industrial Park opened in late December 1989.

[10] New ramps connecting the highway to Dutch Village Road (now Joseph Howe Drive) in Halifax were opened on 24 November 2001.

In November 2014, Larry Uteck Boulevard was extended to connect to Kearney Lake Road from Highway 102.

[14] An underpass beneath Highway 102 between Dunbrack Street and Lacewood Drive, built to link the Fairview neighbourhood with Bayers Lake Industrial Park, opened to traffic on 9 December 2011.

An access road was built to connect the interchange to Trunk 2 next to the East Hants Sportsplex, serving the communities of Lantz and Dutch Settlement.

On March 19, 2020, the new tunnel beneath Highway 103 opened, marking the completion of the southbound ramp reconfiguration.

From the 1970s to the early 1990s, Highway 102 was actively patrolled by the RCMP using aerial surveillance for speed limit violations.