The motorway was constructed to connect the then-recently opened Gateway Bridge to the Bruce Highway in the north and the South-East Freeway (renamed Pacific Motorway in 2000) in the south. Construction on the road commenced in March 1985 and it was opened to traffic in four stages between August and December 1986. When first opened, the Gateway Bridge and supporting roads extended only to Airport Drive in the north and Lytton Road in the south. After completion of the entire route, it was named the Gateway Arterial Road, since the existence of three large roundabouts north of the Brisbane River disqualified it from being a motorway. To cope with the heavier than expected traffic, the government began upgrading the road in 1987, only a year after it opened. Duplication to four lanes and grade-separation was completed in several stages between 1989 and 1996. In 1995, construction began on a southern extension to the Logan Motorway, creating the Southern Brisbane Bypass for easier access to Ipswich and Toowoomba. The road was opened to traffic by Vaughan Johnson, then-Minister for Transport and Main Roads, on 13 May 1997. Following this work, the road was renamed Gateway Motorway. In 2007, construction began on the Gateway Upgrade Project, which duplicated the Gateway Bridge, added a deviation between Eagle Farm and Nudgee and upgraded the motorway south of the river. The duplicate Gateway Bridge was opened on 24 May 2010 and both bridges were renamed the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges. The original bridge was refurbished to match the new structure and was finished on 28 November 2010. The northern deviation was routed east from its old alignment (the old alignment is now named Southern Cross Way) and added a second access road, Moreton Drive, to Brisbane Airport. The deviation opened on 19 July 2009 whilst Moreton Drive opened on 3 December 2009. South of the bridges, the motorway was expanded to 9 lanes up to the Wynnum Road interchange, and 8 lanes to the
Old Cleveland Road interchange. From that point the motorway is six lanes up to the Pacific Motorway Merge. The upgrades between Lytton Road and Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road were completed on 28 January 2010, while the final stage between Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road and Pacific Motorway (also the final stage of the entire Gateway Motorway Upgrade) was opened to traffic on 30 July 2011. Manual
toll booths were removed and replaced with electronic toll gates (which require vehicles to
have a transponder attached to the windscreen) in 2010. ==Tolls==