Future Hardin Valley growth release valve with Watt $35m

With the anticipated growth of western Hardin Valley all the way to the Loudon County line creating new Interstate traffic concerns in the coming years, a Tennessee Department of Transportation Corridor Study led to $35 million in state funds being appropriated for a redesign of Watt Road Exit.

“Most recently, (Knox County Mayor) Glenn Jacobs started pushing for Watt Road, and he got Watt Road in there, too,” Farragut Mayor Ron Williams said.

Based on Hardin Valley’s anticipated growth westward to the Loudon County line because of the recent construction of a sewer plant, “That opens up the whole west end of Hardin Valley and the east end of Loudon County,” the Farragut mayor said. “You look at Watt Road and say, ‘that’s just a sleepy little ole truckstop exit’ — but in the years to come it’s not going to be that way.

“That’s going to be a very busy exit.”

That’s because the western part of Hardin Valley will go from being almost entirely farms “to being subdivisions” in the coming years, Williams added.