The Parkway meets the Indiana Toll Road which carries I-80/I-90 before crossing the state line into Michigan.

[10] The freeway was extended to just past the SR 23 interchange in late Summer 1965,[11] then further east to US 31, that section opening on December 15, 1967.

[13] The exit with the Indiana East–West Toll Road/I-80/I-90 was built beginning in 1979 in conjunction with the northern extension to Michigan.

[15] Ramps from Nimtz Parkway were opened November 3, 1997,[16] and the portion in Elkhart was also named the "Dean R. Mock Expressway" in March 2002.

[20] A report issued in 1970 detailed four routing corridors, spawning a lawsuit over how Berrien Springs would be bypassed.

The first section, running from the state line north to US 12, was completed and dedicated August 10, 1979,[21] and opened to traffic by September 6 of that year.

[20] East of Benton Harbor, Michigan, the St. Joseph Valley Parkway extension was under study due to environmental, economical and historical site issues.

[36] Since that approval, the butterfly was discovered in the Blue Creek Fen in the late 1980s,[37] and it was listed an endangered species in 1992.

[27] The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued an opinion two years later that the freeway project would jeopardize the species.

[37] MDOT was given permission to modify the previously approved freeway to cross the Blue Creek on longer bridges; the USFWS also required that any construction be done from elevated platforms,[38] among other restrictions.

[40] Construction of the extension was not included for this reason in subsequent MDOT five-year highway projects plans, although most of the design work and land acquisition was identified in 2013 as having been finished.

[41] Funding for the project was listed in the 2017–21 plan draft released in July 2016, which split the remaining work into three phases.

[48] Until the freeway was completed, US 31 followed a stretch of Napier Avenue, which was upgraded in conjunction with the St. Joseph Valley Parkway opening to that point, westward to I-94.