Interstate 77 (I-77) in the US state of West Virginia is a major north–south Interstate Highway. It extends for between Bluefield at the Virginia state line and Williamstown at the Ohio state line.
The highway serves Charleston, the capital and largest city in West Virginia; it also serves the cities of Princeton, Beckley, and Parkersburg. I-77 follows the entire length of the West Virginia Turnpike, a toll road that runs between Princeton and Charleston, and it runs concurrently with I-64 between Beckley and Charleston.
Historically, the West Virginia Turnpike was a two-lane road with treacherous curves and a tunnel (which has since been decommissioned). Construction began in 1952, several years before the Interstate Highway System was funded. It was only in 1987 that the entire length of the turnpike was upgraded to Interstate standards. Due to the difficulty and lives lost in construction, it has been called "88 miles of miracle".
Route description Virginia to Charleston
I-77 enters West Virginia from Virginia via the East River Mountain Tunnel, running concurrently with US Route 52 (US 52). It surfaces in Mercer County to the east of Bluefield as a four-lane freeway. I-77's first exit in West Virginia is north of the state line; US 52 leaves the highway here. I-77 then turns to the northeast and comes to a partial interchange with West Virginia Route 112 (WV 112) in Ingleside. Changing its course to a more northerly alignment, I-77 reaches another partial interchange serving County Route 27 (CR 27). It then continues north toward Princeton, which is served by an interchange with US 460. Here, I-77 becomes the West Virginia Turnpike, which it remains through Charleston. The highway continues northward through rural Mercer County, roughly following US 19. After passing over WV 20 with no access, the space between the northbound and southbound roadways widens. The two roadways reunite at a point north of an interchange for CR 7 and WV 20 near Gardner. Continuing north, the highway approaches the turnpike's Bluestone Service Plaza, accessible from the northbound lanes only. I-77 then crosses the Bluestone River in Eads Mill, and the southbound roadway has a rest area and weigh station. Now heading northwesterly, the highway approaches an interchange with US 19 and passes Camp Creek State Park in Camp Creek, where the road turns north again.
Running closely parallel with US 19, I-77 enters Raleigh County near the community of Ghent. Here, the road has an interchange with CR 48, providing access to Winterplace Ski Resort. I-77's northbound and southbound lanes separate here, and the highway approaches its first toll plaza. The two roadways reunite at a point south of Daniels. I-77 meets I-64 south of Beckley, and the two highways become concurrent. The highways bypass the west side of Beckley, meeting WV 16 and WV 3 and passing the turnpike's Beckley Service Area, which includes Tamarack Marketplace at exit 45. Near the community of Prosperity, the highway has an exit for US 19 with a toll on the northbound exit and southbound entrance. I-77 heads north from Beckley into the Appalachian Mountains. It enters Fayette County near Pax, where it has an exit serving CR . After this exit is the second toll plaza on the turnpike. Continuing in a northwest direction, I-77 comes to an interchange with WV 612 near Mossy. Immediately after the northbound exit, the median narrows and changes to a Jersey barrier. This section of the road until Chelyan has a large number of curves, and it passes the Morton Service Area.
The turnpike crosses into Kanawha County near Standard shortly afterward. Curving to the west and to the north again, I-77 has an exit serving Sharon. The highway continues north until it reaches the northernmost toll plaza on the turnpike and the Kanawha River near Cabin Creek, where it turns northwest to follow the river toward Charleston. Soon afterward is an exit for the Admiral T. J. Lopez Bridge, providing access to US 60 on the north side of the river. Parallel with WV 61, after passing Chesapeake and Marmet, I-77 crosses the river between exits 95 (WV 61) and 96 (US 60) in Port Amherst. The West Virginia Turnpike ends after exit 96.
Charleston to Ohio
I-77/I-64 continues west along the north side of the Kanawha River closely parallel with US 60 after the turnpike ends. In eastern Charleston, the highway passes to the north of the historic Craik-Patton House. Continuing northwest, the road comes to interchanges serving the 35th Street Bridge and WV 114, the latter of which provides access to the West Virginia State Capitol. The route then enters downtown Charleston and crosses the Elk River before separating from I-64 at an interchange in north Charleston. I-77 heads northeasterly along the river until it meets the southern terminus of I-79 at a modified full Y interchange near Yeager Airport. (Instead of the expected treatment of I-77 as the primary route at this interchange, the following traffic movements are found: northbound I-77 through traffic curves to the left, while traffic to northbound I-79 exits right; southbound I-77 through traffic curves to the right and merges on the right with traffic from southbound I-79, while traffic to northbound I-79 both exits and merges on the left; southbound I-79 traffic merges on the left with traffic from southbound I-77, while traffic to northbound I-77 both exits and merges on the left.) I-77 then heads north into rural Kanawha County. After passing interchanges with CR 27, CR 29, WV 622, and CR 21 in Sissonville, the freeway enters Jackson County near Goldtown.
I-77 serves the communities of Kenna via an interchange with WV 34 and Fairplain via CR 21. The highway continues northward through Ripley, where it intersects US 33 and WV 62. It runs concurrently with US 33 and does so through Silverton, where US 33 leaves the Interstate and WV 2 joins it. I-77/WV 2 turns northeasterly toward Rockport, where it enters Wood County and turns northward toward Parkersburg. The highway runs through the southeast corner of Parkersburg, bypassing the center of the city. After an interchange with WV 14 near Mineral Wells, I-77/WV 2 crosses the Little Kanawha River south of Parkersburg, intersects WV 47 and US 50, and heads northeastward from the city. WV 2 leaves I-77 soon after, at exit 179 for WV 68 in North Hills. I-77 heads northward toward Williamstown, which is served by an exit for WV 14. I-77 then crosses the Ohio River into Marietta, Ohio, on the Marietta–Williamstown Interstate Bridge.
History Early years
In the antebellum years before West Virginia separated from Virginia, development of adequate roads was a major area of conflict between the western regions and the east. Through the Virginia Board of Public Works, the Virginia state government helped finance turnpikes among its programs to encourage internal improvements, with tolls collected to defray operating costs and retire debt. Principal among these was the east–west Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike, completed from Staunton to the Ohio River at Parkersburg immediately prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865). However, many of the internal transportation improvements were destroyed during that conflict, leaving bonded debt still to be paid, even as additional progress had ended. After resolution by the US Supreme Court, which assigned a third of the amount due to the new state early in the 20th century, West Virginia was faced with retiring its share of Virginia's antebellum debt for the earlier turnpikes (and canals and railroads) even as the citizens needed and sought better roads.
With the completion of the earliest portion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940, the desire for such a superhighway in West Virginia took hold. By the mid 20th century, in the years before creation of the Interstate Highway System in 1956, superhighways in the form of additional toll roads, such as the New Jersey Turnpike in 1951 and the Ohio Turnpike and 1955, began stimulating economic development and enhancing transportation in the eastern US. The challenge of terrain in West Virginia mirrored that of Pennsylvania in some ways but with several important distinctions. The most important of these was that the first portion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike had largely followed and utilized a costly earlier rail project which had never been completed. On the West Virginia Turnpike, there would be no such advantage.
Planning and construction
Originally serviced by railroads and then two-lane highways, by the mid-20th century, the cities of southern and central West Virginia grew to the point where the roadways between these regions were becoming woefully inadequate. Heavier traffic loads and increasing traffic volumes made the existing roads dangerous with safety statistics to prove it. In 1949, Governor Okey Patteson oversaw the creation of the Turnpike Commission, which was the start of the planning of what was to become the West Virginia Turnpike.
Two years earlier, the state legislature had appropriated funds to study the feasibility of building a superhighway comparable to similar projects being planned and constructed in other states. Early proposals showed a highway stretching from Parkersburg to Princeton, while another map diagrammed a route from Wheeling to Princeton. Both of these plans, however, were shelved in a 1951 study, citing the extreme costs of building a modern highway through very unforgiving terrain as the primary reason. The study recommended that the northern terminus be moved to Fairplain just outside Ripley and that the southern terminus remain in Princeton. The study also suggested that the highway be constructed as a two-lane facility rather than a four-lane highway, with provisions for future widening when funding became available.
In November 1951, the final alignment was chosen. The route was shorter than the original road mileage between Charleston and Princeton but would save motorists over two hours of driving between those two points. Original cost projections came in at $78 million (equivalent to $ in ). According to the West Virginia Turnpike CAF Report:
The Commission issued $96 million [equivalent to $ in ] of % revenue bonds in April 1952, and groundbreaking took place in August of that year. Due to the occurrence of large slides midway through construction that had to be corrected at additional expense, revenue bonds for an additional $37 million [equivalent to $ in ] were sold at %. When ground was broken on the first segment of the turnpike, the northern terminus had once again been moved south. This time, it was placed at Charleston, citing cost as the primary reason. The cost was projected to be $133 million (equivalent to $ in ) and to be funded through bonds that would be repaid through a system of tolls. This cost included $5 million (equivalent to $ in ) for a two-lane tunnel to connect Dawes to Standard.
The year 1953 kicked off a period of intense earthmoving that at its peak reached a week and totaled .CAF Report. West Virginia Turnpike. March 20, 2005.
Construction took two years at the cost of five lives. The first section of the highway, the southern from Beckley to Princeton, opened to traffic on September 2, 1954. In November, the remaining between Charleston and Beckley opened. The new turnpike had several nicknames, including " of miracle" and "the engineering marvel that beat the mountains". Triangular turnpike shields, with the words "West Virginia" at the top and an interlocking "T" and "P" in the center, were installed along the highway. Six interchanges were constructed. Initially, the road used a ticket-based tolling system. At each interchange, bridges and underpasses for the mainline had an extra set of graded lanes, indicating that the turnpike was expected to be widened in the future. According to the West Virginia Turnpike CAF Report: