The concept of a bypass around Portsmouth was first suggested in 1964 and incorporated into the original iteration of the Appalachian Development Highway System in 1965. However, the State of Ohio did not seriously contemplate building the roadway until it conducted the Portsmouth Transportation Study between 1999 and 2001. The study recommended a new 16-mile highway known as the "Airport Bypass" concept.
ODOT continued to revise the proposed route and configuration of the roadway recommended by the Portsmouth Transportation Study. ODOT developed a number of alternatives for consideration as part of an environmental impact analysis started in late 2001. Ultimately, a preferred alternative emerged and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) granted its final environmental approval in June 2006. At this time, ODOT assumed the project, now known as the Portsmouth Bypass, would be built in three phases, subject to funding availability. Following the environmental approval, ODOT began purchasing the land it would need to accommodate the alignment of the new highway, and in the summer of 2008 it completed preliminary design for the project.
Over the next several years, the project underwent detailed design and value engineering, a process that looks for ways to reduce costs and increase its construction feasibility. ODOT also continued to acquire properties necessary to build the road. By 2010, ODOT had identified available state funding for the first phase of the project (a three-mile section in the middle of the full 16-mile stretch) and right-of-way acquisition for all three phases. Construction on phase 1 was assumed to start in 2012, and the project was not expected to be completed until 2022 or 2024. ODOT and FHWA conducted a thorough analysis of the project's cost in March 2011 and concluded that the project's price tag would be about $550 million.