Interstate 77

Overview

Interstate 77 connects the eastern Great Lakes region with Appalachia and the Southeast. The freeway begins at Cayce on the south side of Columbia, following the Southeastern Beltway to Fort Jackson and I-20 near Forest Acres. The remainder of the route in South Carolina leads north to Rock Hill and the Charlotte metropolitan area.

Within the Tar Heel State, I-77 travels directly through the Queen City of Charlotte, serving Downtown in conjunction with Interstate 277, the John Belk and Brookshire Freeways. Leading north from Uptown Charlotte to Huntersville and Mooresville, I-77 constitutes a heavily traveled commuter route with Express Toll Lanes accompanying the route. The freeway remains well traveled to Statesville and the cross roads with Interstate 40.

I-77 north from Statesville to Fort Chiswell, Virginia is a rural but busy truck route. The stretch is punctuated by the Blue Ridge Mountains, which offers both scenery and potentially travel foggy conditions through Carroll County. A nearly nine mile overlap takes I-77 west along Interstate 81 to Wytheville. Coinciding with U.S. 11 and U.S. 52, cardinal directions along I-77/81 run opposite one another in what is sometimes referred to as a wrong-way concurrency.

Resuming a northward heading from Wytheville, Interstate 77 traverses a series of mountains to Bluefield, West Virginia. Tunnels take the route below Big Walker Mountain and East Mountain. Within the Mountaineer State, I-77 transitions into a toll road at U.S. 460 outside Princeton. The West Virginia Turnpike takes the route north to Beckley, where it combines with I-64 en route to Charleston.

Running along the Kanawha River into the capital city, I-64 and I-77 separate outside Downtown, with I-77 turning northeast briefly to Interstate 79. I-79 joins Charleston with Morgantown and Pittsburgh while I-77 remains along the former U.S. 21 corridor north to Parkersburg and Marietta, Ohio.

Advancing north through the Buckeye State, Interstate 77 stays rural to Cambridge, where it crosses paths with I-70. The route becomes increasingly busy from New Philadelphia into Canton, where U.S. 62 overlaps from separate east and west freeways. Suburban type development continues along the I-77 corridor from there north to Akron.

Interstate 77 forms an L-shaped route through Akron between I-277/U.S. 224 and a three mile overlap with I-76 south of Downtown. The freeway stays westerly to Ohio State Route 21 (former U.S. 21) near Fairlawn, where it makes the final turn toward the Cleveland area. I-77 and SR 21 parallel one another north to Independence and the Willow Freeway leading into the Forest City. The route concludes at Interstate 90 just south of Downtown.

Major Projects

Within Iredell and Mecklenburg Counties north of Charlotte, the I-77 Express Lanes project rebuilt 26 miles of freeway. The project added one or two High Occupancy Toll (HO/T) lanes between Exit 11 / I-277 and Exit 36 / NC 150. The lanes run in tandem with the free general purpose lanes, but incorporate a variable toll rate on single occupant vehicles or HOV-2 traffic. HOV-3 eligible vehicles are permitted to use the roadway free of charge. Estimated to cost $647 million and highly contested by area residents, the public-private partnership based project was expected to take three years to complete.⁵ Weather, construction delays and design changes pushed work beyond the end of 2018 (WFAE, 2019).

Work on the I-77 Express Lanes was announced by the I-77 Mobility Partners LLC for November 16, 2015. Construction took place in the median of Interstate 77, starting in area south of Exit 23 and north of Exit 28, with occasional lane shifts and closures take place during overnight hours (WCNC, 2015). The first section of the I-77 Express Lanes opened to traffic on June 1, 2019. The 15 mile long segment runs between Hambright Road (SR 2117), north of I-485 in Huntersville, and NC 150 / Exit 36 in Mooresville. The remaining 11 miles south to Interstate 277 / Exit 11 in Charlotte opened on November 16, 2019. Overall construction on the project continued to December 2020.

Parallel U.S. Routes

Largely following the original route of U.S. 21, Interstate 77 parallels or overlaps with U.S. 21 from Columbia, South Carolina to Wytheville, Virginia. Northward through West Virginia to Cleveland, Ohio, I-77 replaced U.S. 21, which was truncated in stages between 1974 and 1979.

History

The Interstate Route Number assignments adopted by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on August 14, 1957 assigned Interstate 77 between Toledo and Port Huron. This included an overlap with I-75 from Toledo to Detroit. A proposed revision to the assignments by the Ohio Department of Highways mailed to AASHO on February 27, 1958 revised the route of I-77 in Toledo to follow Ohio State Route 120 (Thormyer, 1958), along what eventually became I-280 between I-75 and I-80/90 (Ohio Turnpike).

The corridor ultimately adopted for Interstate 77 was only partially included in the 1957 Interstate Route Number assignments. This comprised just a short route between Canton and Cleveland that was assigned Interstate Route 79. An extension of I-79 south from Canton to Marietta was also requested by the Ohio Department of Highways to AASHO (Thormyer, 1958).

Subsequent revisions to the Interstate Route Number assignments in 1958 replaced I-79 with an extension of Interstate 77 east from Toledo to Cleveland, and south to Charlotte, North Carolina. This included a lengthy overlap with I-80/90 east from the Toledo area to Cleveland. Addressing this redundancy, Charles M. Nobile, Director of the Ohio Department of Highways presented to AASHO for consideration a proposal to instead end I-77 in Cleveland and drop the planned route west to Toledo and north to Port Huron. The August 8, 1958 letter suggested that the portion of I-77 north from I-80/90 to I-280 in Toledo be renumbered Interstate 280 (Nobile, 1958). Addressing the section of I-77 in Michigan, Noble (1958) recommended that the route from Detroit to Port Huron be assigned the number Interstate 75 East (I-75E).

A.E. Johnson (1958), Executive Security of AASHO concurred with both recommendations, and the associated "Alternate Proposal" which outlined the changes for the urban route assignments at Toledo, Akron and Youngstown. The alternate proposals assigned 280 for the I-77 leg between I-75 and I-80/90, revised 280 to 480 for the "Akron Bypass" and renumbered 480 to 680 for the loop at Youngstown (Nobile, 1958).

The approval changed the planned alignment of Interstate 77 in Cleveland so that it ran north directly to I-90, which in 1958 was outlined as following the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway (Ohio State Route 2). The change also replaced what was proposed as Interstate 177 north from I-80N to I-90, which included an overlap of I-71 (Noble, 1958).

With just two lanes, the West Virginia Turnpike opened to traffic on November 8, 1954. The toll road was later incorporated as parts of both I-64 and I-77. The project upgrading the turnpike from two to four lanes was completed on September 2, 1987 (Federal Highway Administration [FHWA], n.d.).

The 4,200 foot long Big Walker Mountain Tunnel in western Virginia took five years to build. Costing $30 million, the first mountain tunnel constructed in the state opened in 1972 (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1991).

Interstate 77 ended at Charlotte, North Carolina from the north until June 23, 1969, when the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) approved the extension to Columbia, South Carolina.

Completion of I-77 southward to I-26 was formally recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on April 22, 1995. This extension lengthened Interstate 77 south from its previous end at I-20 to I-26. Interstate 326, which was briefly designated on the Southeastern Beltway between I-26 and S.C. 48 south of Columbia, was subsumed by the extended I-77. The gap between I-20 and S.C. 48 was closed prior to the renumbering. The Temporary Interstate 77, signed on I-20 and I-26 around Columbia, was also eliminated in 1995.

$36.3 million in construction at Exit 82 in Rock Hill, South Carolina improved the interchanges at Cherry Road (U.S. 21) and S.C. 161 (Celenese Road). Linking the two exchanges, a collector distributor roadway was added along both sides of I-77. Work also included widening the I-77 bridge over the Catawba River. This project was complete by September 2004 (The Herald, 2003).

Early 1960s maps for Ohio showed I-71 and I-77 overlapped along the Innerbelt Freeway north to the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway in Cleveland. The Shoreway was proposed as the mainline for I-90 west from there to the unconstructed Parma Freeway. The Parma Freeway was to run south from the Shoreway to the Northwest Freeway (I-90 today) and York Road at North Royalton.

As part of the Innerbelt Project in Cleveland with I-71 and I-90, changes were made at the north end of Interstate 77. The southbound entrance ramps from 9th and Ontario Streets were removed and loop ramps along I-90 east replaced with a single ramp to E 9th Street north. This movement to the southbound beginning of Interstate 77 was replaced by an upgraded boulevard along Orange Avenue (U.S. 422/SR 14) to 30th Street.

Prior work of the Innerbelt Project eliminated the seldom used eastbound ramp from I-90 to I-77 south and the northbound ramp from I-77 north to I-90 west. Both ramps involved sharp curves with conflict points. They closed permanently on April 10 and 11, 2011, with Interstate 490 prominently signed to accommodate the former movements (Ohio Department of Transportation, 2011).

North End  ‐ Cleveland, OH

North at

Four off-ramps depart from the northernmost mile of Interstate 77 starting with Exit 162 A to parallel Woodland Avenue (U.S. 422/SR 8) at the Central and Industrial Valley neighborhoods. 07/23/24

West at

One half mile north of the wye interchange (Exit 172 A) with I-77 south on I-90 west. Exit 173 A leaves here for Prospect Avenue, one block south of U.S. 20 (Euclid Avenue). 07/23/24

North End – Past Views

Past Views Gallery (Tap to Expand / Collapse Section)

North at

Leaving the four level interchange with Interstate 490, an end sign for I-77 appears next to the first overhead for Interstate 90. 09/30/10

East at

Leading away from the four level interchange with I-71, the Innerbelt Freeway turned northward by Industrial Valley toward both E 9th Street and Interstate 77 south at Exit 172 A. Photo by Steve Hanudel (06/18/06).

West at

The half mile sign for Interstate 77 south was carbon copied to use Clearview font. 09/30/10

South End  ‐ Cayce, SC

South at

The first sign for Interstate 26 appears as I-77 south enters the diamond interchange (Exit 2) with S.C. 35. This exit opened to traffic with the 12th Street Extension south from the city of Cayce in December 1999. 04/16/12

West at

Interstate 26 passes through an area of industrial parks and distribution centers at Dixiana ahead of the directional T interchange (Exit 116) with I-77 north. 09/16/21

East at

Heading south from S.C. 302, two additional exits over the ensuing two miles join I-26 east with the city of Cayce. Exit 115 departs next for U.S. 21-176-321 (Charleston Highway) adjacent to ramps with I-77. 11/21/21

South at Fish Hatchery Road

U.S. 21/176/321 (Charleston Highway) run just west of the systems interchange joining I-26/77 in south Cayce. An entrance ramp connects Charleston Highway and Fish Hatchery Road (Road 73) with the northbound beginning of Interstate 77. 10/15/23

South End – Past Views

Past Views Gallery (Tap to Expand / Collapse Section)

East at

I-26 east expands to four lanes ahead of both Exit 115 to U.S. 21-176-321 and the northbound beginning of I-77. These signs were replaced by 2007; That set was replaced again in 2016 with an arrow per lane overhead. Photo by Chris Patriarca (06/08/03).