A very special road in Lillorainen is the Federal Route B77, as it isn't only the longest Federal Route with a two-figure number, but also the only Federal Route directly connecting the North and South Shores of Elverholm Island, and also one of the few major non-Autobahn highways which aren't interrupted by sections downgraded to a State Road or upgraded to an Autobahn (even though it has been considered a few times; see below). Even though the course has been altered a couple of times due to expansions and buildups of bypasses, many sections still follow the original course and pass some scenic landscapes, but also well-known cities. As of currently, the total length of the B77 is 865 kilometers. The route only runs through two states, Marrania (in German:
Mangern) and Rigesöer.
(For general information on the Lillorainian road numbering system,
see here.)
The current course.The B77 starts in Karienwerth, Marrania, east of the city of Breden and close to the state border to Rathenia, mouthing into the coastal route B78 (which used to run parallel to the North Shore until much of the road was downgraded to State Routes). From there, it goes southeast, going through the flat marshlands typical for the Marranian part of the North Shore. It directly goes through the towns of Theuscheid, Brederbuerschap, Enderfürth, Freyenwerth, and Gormrath, as a two-laned country road, after which it becomes four-laned, without central barrier, passing the city (and state capital) of Wettau while crossing the Federal Highways A57 and A2. It continues running parallel to Highway A49 on the left side of the Endau River. After having passed Levenfürth, Püttem/Marrania, and Idunspont, it enters the first larger metropolis, the City of Ladenburg.
Crossing the A30, the Ladenburg Ringroad, near Ladenburg-Jogau, the B77 serves as the main artery for the northeastern and eastern districts of the city, passing Ladenburg-Endep, Ladenburg-Jünkrath, and Ladenburg-Tentrop, after which it leaves the built-up areas and serves as an urban highway, built up in full Autobahn-style, crossing the A4 and the Ladau River near Ladenburg-Eschede and the A30 again at Ladenburg-Pollersheim (technically, the intersection belongs to Ladenburg-Bermen, but it was called Pollersheim to avoid getting confused for the exit of Ladenburg-Bermen at the A30). Passing Ladenburg-Hervede and Ladenburg-Bentringen, it leaves the city's territory again.
From there, it continues as a full Autobahn-style highway, serving as an artery for the Oberladau District with its notably hilly and forested landscapes, passing Rhonnscheid (the district's capital), Vahrwinkel, Leyblingen, and Langenbuerschap (where it connects to the A4 again by the well-built-up State Road L27), after which it reaches Lexingerhof, capital of the district of the same name, connecting it by four exits, one of them being the intersection with the B165, which connects Lexingerhof with Rohrscheid and Fehnscheid in the south. The area gets quite mountainous abruptly, and after having passed Fröndlar, the road's lanes are reduced to two (one each direction) again, and after another few hundred meters, the central barrier ends as well.
From here, the road is quite wide, but has no side lanes, only emergency stops every kilometer. The road is notably curvy, which is oftentimes considered quite a bit of a challenge for drivers from outside the area. The road passes several mountains, until it reaches Lindenthal (Marrania), then, in its curvy course, runs through Voerbeck, Voerbeckerbuerschap, Kellerop, Achterloh, Stochrath, Wilmerloh, and Henderloh. The next major town for the B77 to reach is Stoltena, the district capital, where it crosses Highway A33.
From Stoltena on, the road gets more narrow and even more curvy. However, after around ten kilometers, the state of the road gets better again, with fewer narrow curves and more bridges and tunnels. Finally, it reaches the town of Kaltholt, after which the terrain gets more flat again. From here, the route has four lanes again, but no central barrier and no emergency lane, limiting the maximum speed to 120 km/h. In this condition, the B77 passes by Merlsum, Eversloh, Drochterloh, Millersen, Heppenkamp, Schlegelsloh, Simmersen, Fahlen, Jaderloh, and Frederborn, where it crosses the district border to Vartrup and enters Southern Marrania ('Marrania Panhandle'). Getting a bit more curvy again, it passes Osterholt (Marrania), where it crosses Highway A45, Coppentrup, Kalersen, Ihla, Grosslestringen, Riedersen, and Portenthal, until eventually reaching Sassenborn, connecting the town by three exits, and crossing Highway A66 at the Sassenborn Intersection.
From there, it runs through hilly areas for a couple of kilometers, until it reaches the City of Vartrup. It passes by the city in the east, connecting it via six exits, the southernmost one of which leading to the renowned
Vartrup Boarding School. After this exit, the road runs through a forest for roughly a kilometer, then eventually crosses the state border to Rigesöer.
There, it passes mountainous territory again, using bridges and tunnels, the former giving a view on the large pine forests in the area. After ten kilometers, the road passes by Bederup, then goes a few more kilometers and finally enters the city of Stettenborn and serves as it's urban main artery from north to south. South of Stettenborn, the terrain suddenly becomes flat grassland. The road remains four-laned and reaches Autobahn standard (central barrier, emergency lane), passes by Keutningen, crosses Highway A54 (A44 prior to its merger with the A54 in late 2019), and goes yet around fifteen kilometers through flat land, until it reaches Sahrenslee. After going through this city four-laned and again without central barrier, the road becomes two-laned again after crossing Sahrenslee's city limit.
From here, the road is wide, has emergency lanes and goes relatively straight through the landscape, showing mostly plains with a couple of hills. It goes through the towns and villages of Halmbek, Nienhorn, Ihringen, Listrup, Bekminde, Tiensen, and Rodelar, parallel to the Highway A69, which connects the towns and villages at the Rathe Lake. Unlike said highway, the B77 does not pass the city of Bordeslee, but connects to it through a number of State Roads, crossing them in the villages east of the city, namely, Kehla, Jöllerup, Bad Arlingsen, Bad Hennerkaupa, and Ueltrup.
Here, the Reega Valley begins. Passing by Systerbek, the capital of the Reegatalkreis District, the road runs through the extremely sparsely populated, mildly forested valley parallel to the Reega River, only interrupted by smaller towns such as Nyenholm, Nellingerhof, Flintwarder, Hinzhagen, Bellerbek, Nolten, and Bremerby. Here, the road doesn't have an emergency lane and is generally very narrow for a road of this priority. Eventually, the B77 reaches the city of Sophienhof and therefore the Preetz Metropolitan Area, touching its eastern parts, and, after leaving the city limit again, reaches Autobahn-style standard again and crosses with Highway A6 at Sophienhof-Kolderdiek. From there, it quickly reaches the metropolis of Preetz/Rgsr., connecting Preetz-Vedelar, Preetz-Feddern, and Preetz-Flottstedt, crossing the A31, then ultimately becomes an urban road, serving as an artery for Preetz-Nohrsen, Preetz-Harderstedt, where it crosses Highway A1, Preetz-Metteswerder, and the eastern part of Preetz-Pustingen, where it ultimately crosses Highway A1 again. Behind Preetz-Bramstedten, the road remains four-laned without central barrier and leads to the satellite city of Luderbek, with connections to the Preetz/Hollstedt International Airport and the cities of Alveloe and Fellerförde. After going east for a kilometer, the road turns south and ultimately becomes a narrow two-laned country road again, going through the Sundbek District's renowed sunflower plains as a tree-laned road. There, it passes the towns and villages of Koopmannslee, Berkeln, Olesholm, Gestrup, and after turning west, Oversottrup, Nedersottrup, Linneshoop, and Steenbek. After passing a few hills, the B77 eventually reaches the South Shore, serving as a southern by-pass for the city of Trinesholm/Rgsr., until it enters Trinesholm-Dorlau and mouths into the coastal Federal Route B42.
In short, the B77 runs through the following districts (with the license plate code in brackets): Breden/Marrania (BD), Wettau (W), Ladenburg (LD), Oberladau (OLA), Lexingerhof (LX), Stoltena (SNA), Vartrup (VA), Stettenborn (STB), Sahrenslee (SAL), Bordeslee (BOL), Reegatalkreis (R), Sophienhof (SOH), Preetz/Rgsr. (PZ), Alveloe (AL), Sundbek (SBK), and Trinesholm (TH).
A bit of history.The predecessor of the modern B77 is a north-south trade route established by the Storöer-League of Cities in the mid-15th century, partly built up from existing routes, partly also built from scratch - especially the more mountainous areas. The League sought to have full control over the flow of goods between Ladenburg and Vartrup, as well as its connections to the East Coast. As a result, fortresses in the mountains were put up, and especially the strategically relevant points of Stoltena, Kaltholt, and Fahlen enjoyed an unusually high military and militia presence for their size. The local populace quite appreciated this, given how it made raids and lootings of highwaymen notably less likely.
After the end of the Storöer-League, the area ended up in crossfires between rivaling Western and Eastern Marranian landlords. After these were solved and Marrania became what we know it as today, the area remained forgotten, leaving the populace more or less completely in the peasants' self-administration it was in prior to the arrival of the Storöer-League's troops. This changed a bit in the 1920s, when Marrania became one of the strongholds of the Lillorainian Technocratic Movement. The area was found as a strategically safe position for arms manufacturing facilities, which let this rural area prosper. In the 1970s Civil War, the area was contested again; Vartrup was captured by troops of the Lillorainian Federal Republic, with the boarding school serving as a quarter for troops, and the production facilities at the northern line served as suppliers for the troops entering Freudenberg (Nessovia), located but 20 km away from Vartrup. This historical experience of being a 'frontier society' first, then a forgotten society, and ending up as a frontier society again has defined the regional culture and mindset of the Lillorainian Midwest to this day.
With the unification in 1981, the numbering scheme of Federal Routes became a thing, and the B77 got defined as such. Since the ammunition factories and storages remained relevant, and Vartrup still had a military base, the four-laned section from Vartrup up north got planned quickly and extended over the years. The 'old B77' between Kaltholt and Sassenborn got gradually downgraded to what is now State Road L309. In parallel, Autobahn-style extentions were put up in and around Ladenburg and Preetz. With the growing traffic in recent years, the four-laned section will be extended from Kaltholt up north to Stoltena; the section is projected to be finished in 2023. Plans to extend this further on to the finished Autobahn-style section in Lexingerhof were scrapped due to the mountainous area of the region, its high costs relative to the benefit, and last but not least, environmental concerns.
Plannings.As mentioned above, the B77 is one of the very few continuous coast-to-coast Federal Routes. Even more iconic main routes like the B1 are much fragmented nowadays, since various sections were downgraded to State Roads due to existing or new-built Federal Highways running parallel to these. Other sections, which fit Autobahn standard, have been upgraded and got an A number.
Several plannings for the B77 were made up.
- As mentioned above, the four-laned section between Sahrenslee and Kaltholt will be extended to Stoltena. Contrary to the extension of the northern section, the plans for which were scrapped, this is under construction and projected to be finished by 2023.
- In 1989, the Rigesöerian State Ministry of Transport proposed an extention of the sections between Vartrup and Sophienhof to four-lane standard, as well as a change of the course closer to Bordeslee (with the old section getting downgraded). Several variations have been examinated throughout the 1990s, but at some point, these plannings were discontinued. With the already existing Federal Highways A31 and A69, the latter having been completed in 2018, directly running parallel, a resumption of this planning, considering the low population density in the Reegatal, is very unlikely.
- In 2005, plans were created to extend the urban section of the B77 in Ladenburg to six lanes (three each direction). With the extention of the A49, which runs through the western part of the city, to six lanes, the plan got discarded.
- In 2008, plans evolved to upgrade this section, combined with the section from Ladenburg to Lexingerhof/Fröndlar, to Federal Highway A302. Due to the rather secondary meaning of this section, this was not done.
- Similarly, 2010 plans to upgrade the section from Sophienhof to Preetz-Flottstedt to Highway A317 were not put into effect.
- In 1998, the Federal Audit Office demanded, that the southernmost section between Luderbek and Trinesholm be downgraded to a State Road, as per their argumentation, there was no need for such a secondary route to still be maintained by the Federation due to the A1 running parallel. The Rigesöerian State Government argued against it, claiming, that the B77 still takes a lot of traffic from the southern parts of the Sundbek District, so the Federal Government should not unilaterally delegate the maintenance of the road to local authorities. When the proposal was repeated in 2019, the State Ministry of Transport repeated its argumentation and announced to plan bypasses for the towns and villages near the route due to its indeed rising traffic density. These bypasses, running under the planning name 'B77n', are projected to be finished by 2024. The old route may be downgraded by then. Federal Minister of Infrastructure Lena Ammerup announced, that she agreed to this plan.
- Several bypasses at the northernmost section, between Karienwerth and Wettau, are planned or already under construction.