It connects Interstate 285 (I-285) east of Atlanta, with the suburbs of Stone Mountain and Snellville before transitioning into an arterial road that continues to Athens.

The portion of Stone Mountain Freeway from I-285 to the Dekalb/Gwinnett county line is alternatively designated as Bill Evans Highway.

Stone Mountain Freeway begins at an interchange with US 29/SR 8 (Lawrenceville Highway) on the Scottdale–North Decatur city line, within DeKalb County.

[2][3] The Stone Mountain Freeway shares state route number 10 with Freedom Parkway, a 2-mile-long (3.2 km) road in central Atlanta that connects with the Interstate Highway System at a major interchange on I-75/I-85 (the Downtown Connector).

As that designation suggests, state officials originally intended the Stone Mountain Freeway to continue west,[clarification needed] through Decatur, Druid Hills, and Candler Park, to downtown Atlanta.

In pursuit of those plans, in 1969, the GDOT purchased an X-shaped swath of land designed to carry two roads: I-485, traveling from west to east, and another freeway connecting what are now SR 400 to the north and I-675 to the south.

After 20 years of litigation and political maneuvering, community groups and state and local officials in 1991 compromised and set much of the state-purchased right-of-way aside as parkland, later named Freedom Park.