In this paper, we study a novel routing algorithm based on load balancing for multi-channel wireless mesh networks. In order to increase the network capacity and reduce the interference of transmission streams and the communication delay, on the basis of weighted cumulative expected transmission time (WCETT) routing metric this paper proposes an improved routing metric based on load balancing and channel interference (LBI_WCETT), which considers the channel interference, channel diversity, link load and the latency brought by channel switching. Meanwhile, in order to utilize the multi-channel strategy efficiently in wireless mesh networks, a new channel allocation algorithm is proposed. This channel allocation algorithm utilizes the conflict graph model and considers the initial link load estimation and the potential interference of the link to assign a channel for each link in the wireless mesh network. It also utilizes the channel utilization percentage of the virtual link in its interference range as the channel selection standard. Simulation results show that the LBI_WCETT routing metric can help increase the network capacity effectively, reduce the average end to end delay, and improve the network performance.