It is the southern part of the North–South Corridor which extends the full length of Adelaide and is being built to urban freeway standard.

Construction of the expressway included the Adelaide Southern Veloway for cyclists, which runs alongside it for 7 km, from Marion/Main South Road to the Reynella Interchange.

It continues southwest in a lowered trench between the carriageways of South Road, until it crosses the Sturt River.

It continues in a south-westerly direction in its own alignment, running roughly parallel to Main South Road through Reynella.

[4] The MATS plan proved unpopular, and in 1971 all further highway construction in Adelaide was postponed for a period of ten years.

It was developed as a one-way reversible road, with future duplication provided for in the roadworks base, to be constructed when the need arose.

It used the remaining "Noarlunga Freeway" reservation, except for the northernmost kilometre, where a new route through O'Halloran Hill was chosen to provide high-quality links with Marion and Main South Roads without interfering with existing infrastructure at Sturt.

[5] The radio station broadcast a recorded message on continuous loop featuring promotional and community information messages relating to the expressway, including a jingle that Transport Minister Diana Laidlaw declared made the expressway the only road in the world to have its own jingle.

Weekday public holidays operated under the weekend's opening times to accommodate tourists travelling to the Fleurieu Peninsula.

[7] In February 2010, during the state election campaign, Premier Mike Rann announced that, if re-elected, the expressway would be duplicated in a A$445m project.

Gateway South, a joint venture of Fulton Hogan and Laing O'Rourke was awarded the major works contract for the project in January 2016.

Following the 2022 South Australian state election, the incoming Malinauskas government initiated the addition of an exit at Majors Road near the top of the first climb up from the Adelaide Plains.