Interstate 77 (I-77): Route, Tolls, Tunnels and Safety Data

How long is I-77?

As of January 2026, the FHWA Route Log credits I-77 with 606.78 miles. West Virginia holds the longest share at 189.33 miles, Ohio has 160.89 and North Carolina 105.47. South Carolina's row is 91.05 miles, and Virginia's is the shortest at 60.04.

Wikipedia and Interstate Guide both list 610.10 miles from end to end. Virginia accounts for much of the difference in the state rows: both references give 69.40 miles there, while the Route Log notes 8.80 miles of I-77 on I-81 near Wytheville and appears to leave that shared pavement out of the I-77 row. West Virginia goes the other way. Its Route Log row is about 2 miles longer than the 187.21 in Wikipedia, so it looks to include the 63.88 miles the table notes I-77 sharing with I-64 between Beckley and Charleston.

Where I-77 starts and ends

The southern end is the I-26 interchange in Cayce, in Lexington County on the southwest side of the Columbia area, where I-77 starts out eight lanes wide. The northern end is I-90 in Cleveland.

Between them, I-77 heads north past Rock Hill to Charlotte, then Statesville and Mount Airy, and climbs the Blue Ridge into Virginia. It shares pavement with I-81 near Wytheville, tunnels under Big Walker Mountain and East River Mountain, and follows the West Virginia Turnpike from Princeton through Beckley to Charleston. From there it runs north to Parkersburg, crosses into Ohio, and continues through Cambridge, New Philadelphia, Canton and Akron to Cleveland. Interstate Guide describes it as a replacement for most of the US 21 corridor.

Interstate junctions along I-77

The entries below run south to north. I-26 marks the start in Cayce, with I-20 next on the Columbia side. In North Carolina, I-77 crosses I-85 in Charlotte and I-40 at Statesville, then picks up I-74 near Mount Airy for the run to the Virginia line. Near Wytheville it overlaps I-81 for about 8 miles, and because one route is signed north and the other south on the same lanes, Wikipedia calls it a wrong-way concurrency. I-64 is listed twice: it joins near Beckley and leaves in Charleston, and I-79 follows near the city.

Ohio has I-70 at Cambridge, an interchange Wikipedia says covers more than 300 acres, then about 3 miles shared with I-76 through Akron and the I-80 junction at Richfield, which opened in December 2001. The last junction is I-90 in Cleveland.

Fatal crashes on I-77

NHTSA's FARS counts 269 deaths in 244 fatal crashes on the I-77 mainline from 2020 through 2024, about 54 a year. Spread over the route's length, that is 8.7 deaths per 100 route miles a year, a little under the Interstate network average of 9.5, and it places I-77 25th of the 56 ranked routes. The yearly total climbed from 52 in 2020 to 62 in 2022, fell to 42 in 2023 and rose again to 59 in 2024.

The Carolinas hold about a third of the route's miles and 157 of its deaths. South Carolina's rate of 18.0 is the highest of the five states, almost double the network figure, and North Carolina's is 14.2. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, had 39 deaths, more than any other county on I-77. Richland County, South Carolina, had 24 and Iredell County, North Carolina, had 20, while Chester and York counties in South Carolina had 19 apiece. North of the Carolinas the rates fall to 6.2 in Ohio and 5.2 in West Virginia. Virginia's 3.8 is the lowest on the route.

Counties with the most I-77 crash deaths

Bridges on I-77

In the 2025 National Bridge Inventory, 647 bridges carry the I-77 main line, and half of them were built in 1973 or earlier. Eighteen rate Poor, about 2.8 percent, while 236 rate Good and 393 Fair. West Virginia has half of the Poor bridges, 9 of its 204, or about 4 percent. Ohio has the most bridges on the route, 207, with 4 in Poor condition, and none of Virginia's 53 rate Poor.

I-77 also has two tunnels. The Big Walker Mountain Tunnel, about 4,230 feet long, opened in 1972 after five years of construction. The East River Mountain Tunnel, finished in 1974, passes under the state line into West Virginia; Wikipedia counts it as one of two mountain road tunnels in the country that cross a state border, the other being the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. Farther north, the Yeager Bridge carries I-77 into Charleston ahead of the I-64 split.

Tolls on I-77

FHWA's toll inventory for January 2023 shows one toll facility on I-77, the West Virginia Turnpike, which the West Virginia Parkways Authority runs between Princeton and Charleston. Wikipedia puts the shared I-77 and turnpike section at 88 miles, while the table gives FHWA's figure for the whole facility, 86.8 miles. Through traffic pays at three mainline plazas: Ghent, Pax and Chelyan. On the 2025 rate chart, a passenger car pays $4.50 at each plaza in cash or with an out-of-state E-ZPass, which makes $13.50 for the full trip. Drivers enrolled in the West Virginia E-ZPass Single Fee Discount Plan are charged $0.00 at the plazas after a $27.50 yearly plan fee per transponder.

The facility list does not include the I-77 Express Lanes north of Charlotte. They cover 26 miles, from Exit 11 at I-277 to Exit 36 at NC 150, in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties. The first 15 miles opened on June 1, 2019, and the remaining 11 on November 16, 2019. Solo drivers and two-person carpools pay a toll that varies with traffic, and vehicles carrying three or more people use them free if they declare HOV status through NC Quick Pass. NCDOT is now planning the I-77 South Express Lanes on about 11 miles from the South Carolina line to I-277 and NC 16 in Charlotte; its schedule has a developer chosen in late 2027 and no construction start date yet.

I-77 auxiliary routes

I-77 has one three-digit number, used on two unrelated roads. Charlotte's I-277 is a 4.46-mile loop that meets I-77 at both ends, Exits 9 and 11; the northern express lanes begin at Exit 11. The other I-277 is a 4.35-mile route in Akron.

How I-77 reached Columbia

On August 14, 1957, AASHO first gave the I-77 number to a route between Toledo and Port Huron. Revisions in 1958 extended it east from Toledo to Cleveland and south to Charlotte; later that year AASHO dropped the Toledo to Port Huron leg and set I-77 to end in Cleveland, and on June 23, 1969, AASHO approved a further extension from Charlotte to Columbia.

Some of the road came before the Interstate. The West Virginia Turnpike opened with two lanes on November 8, 1954, and later took on the I-64 and I-77 numbers; its widening to four lanes was completed on September 2, 1987. The two tunnels opened in 1972 and 1974, and North Carolina finished its part of I-77 in 1975.

The southern end was the last to fall into place. For a time I-77 ended at I-20 near Columbia, and the extension to I-26 in Cayce was formally recognized as complete on April 22, 1995. In Ohio, drivers had to use SR 21 to reach I-80 until the direct interchange at Richfield opened in December 2001.

The Blue Ridge climb between Statesville and Fort Chiswell, Virginia, is prone to fog, especially in Carroll County. On March 31, 2013, nearly 100 vehicles piled up near Fancy Gap. Electronic variable speed limit signs went up on that stretch afterward.

I-77 traffic and road conditions

Conditions on I-77 can change fast, from fog on the Blue Ridge in Carroll County, Virginia, to wrecks in the Charlotte area. Each of the five states posts current closures and incidents on its own traveler site, and the links run from South Carolina north to Ohio.

I-77 questions