Safety, not surveillance
Motorists traveling along Grigsby Chapel Road, at the intersection of Weatherly Hills Boulevard and Woodchase Drive, last week questioned the panels over the mid-block pedestrian crosswalk at that intersection, wondering if they were flock cameras.
In response, the Town posted, “The Town of Farragut has operated an automated traffic enforcement program for four intersections since 2009. There are no additional license plate reader devices located on our streets or rights-of-way.”
Thursday, July 30, Town administrator David Smoak said there are no cameras at that intersection. What people on Grigsby Chapel Road saw were “just solar-powered pedestrian crossing warning signs,” he said. “The Town has not installed cameras.”
To help residents cross the street on Grigsby Chapel the Town installed the crosswalk in 2025.
According to Town records, the Board approved the installation Dec. 21, 2023, as part of a Town project, which also included a crosswalk on Turkey Creek Road near Anchor Park and one at McFee Road near McFee Park.
In 2021, the Board approved and the Town installed a crosswalk on Grigsby Chapel Road at the Grigsby Chapel Greenway near the intersection with Campbell Station Road and a mid-block crosswalk with flashing lights near Mayor Bob Leonard Park that same year. The flashing lights at those two mid-block crosswalks also are solar powered.
At those mid-block crosswalks, pedestrians can push a button to operate the flashing beacons that alert drivers someone is about to cross the road, Smoak said.
Regarding the traffic enforcement program, enabled by the Automated Enforcement Ordinance, cameras are located at the following intersections:
• Kingston Pike eastbound at Concord Road and Concord Road northbound at Kingston Pike
• Kingston Pike eastbound at Campbell Station Road and Campbell Station Road northbound and southbound at Kingston Pike
• Kingston Pike eastbound and westbound at Smith Road and Smith Road southbound at Kingston Pike
• Campbell Station Road northbound and southbound at Parkside Drive/Grigsby Chapel Road
According to the Town’s website, the Town has operated the automated traffic enforcement program, or red light cameras, since 2009.
The website states the four intersections were targeted because of the high traffic volume and the number of red light violations surveyed by the Town’s staff.
“These intersections were submitted to Redflex, who then conducted two additional surveys, which confirmed the violation data collected by the Town,” the website stated.
“If you have general questions about how the Traffic Enforcement Program works or if Redflex customer service is unable to answer your questions, please contact Farragut program manager Jennifer Duggan Davis at 865-966-7057 or jdavis@townoffarragut.org.
To provide further safety measures, the Town:
• provided a number of traffic speed cushions in various areas of Town, such as Union Road, Midhurst Drive, Red Mill Road, among others.
• is in the property procurement stage for rights-of-way to complete the second phase of Virtue Road improvements and is in the process of improving Union Road.
• to improve traffic at the new Farragut Area Elementary School currently under construction and scheduled to open the fall of 2027, the Town has approved intersection improvements at Boring and Smith roads.
• is making adaptive traffic signal upgrades to its traffic lights along Kingston Pike.
