Boring Road's connection to Kingston Pike has been closed since June. On September 24, the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen held a workshop and looked at four ways to handle it for good: close it permanently, allow right turns only, rebuild the road, or leave things alone and watch traffic. The Board didn't decide. Members asked for more detail and scheduled another workshop for October.
The deadline behind all of this is the new Knox County Schools K-5 building at Village Commons Boulevard, which is set to open in August 2027. The fastest permanent option on the table could be finished in fall 2027. That means school buses, staff cars and the first wave of drop-offs will arrive before any permanent change is in place. The Board's real choice is how long the road stays as it is once the school is open.
How "Permanent" Turned Into Four Options
In June, Mayor Ron Williams sounded certain. "Right now, that's closed. It will be permanently closed. You'll no longer be able to cut through," he told Farragut Press. He said the people who live along the road were "ecstatic" because they walk there. He also said the Tennessee Highway Patrol had recommended the closure because of crashes at that spot.
Five days later, WATE described the same barricade as temporary. It was there while crews widened the road between Burney Circle and Boring Lane ahead of the school, and a permanent closure at Kingston Pike was only under consideration. Steve Cottrell, who has lived on the road for 32 years, told the station, "We've always used to say it is a very boring place, but it's going to be a little busier."
Letters to Farragut Press that month pushed back. A resident wrote, "It seems the decision has already been made." The resident asked why no signs on westbound Kingston Pike warned drivers that the road was closed. The resident had watched a small business van drive up to the Boring Road and Boring Lane intersection and then have to turn around. By September, the closure had become one of four priced options.
One Road, Two Problems
The September 24 options make more sense once you split Boring Road's trouble into its two parts.
The first is width. Town engineer Darryl Smith noted that the unimproved section is about 14 feet wide, so two cars meeting there have to pull off the road to pass. Knox County Schools is building its own stretch, from the improved end to the school entrance, with two 12-foot lanes and curb and gutter. The narrow part between there and Kingston Pike is the part still in question.
The second is the left turn onto Kingston Pike, which is hard to make at peak hours. The resident said they would sometimes turn right into the shopping center and loop back around to wait at the traffic light rather than risk that left turn.
Here's how each option handles those two problems, using the figures presented at the workshop:
| Option | Estimated cost | Earliest completion | Fixes left turn onto Kingston Pike | Fixes narrow width |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent closure with turnaround | About $350,000 | Fall 2027 | Yes, by removing it | Yes, by closing the narrow segment |
| Right-in, right-out | About $450,000 | No sooner than a year out | Yes | No |
| Full reconstruction | About $3.5 million | Three to five years | No | Yes |
| No change, monitor traffic | No estimate given | Not applicable | No | No |
Town staff recommended the first option: full closure with a hammerhead turnaround for emergency vehicles. A meeting summary says staff saw it as the one choice that deals with both problems at a moderate cost. The same summary says a simple closure had once been budgeted at $50,000. The $350,000 figure covers right-of-way on school property, design and construction. Reports differ slightly on reconstruction timing. WBIR said three to five years, and the meeting summary said three to four.
The Calendar Runs Out First
Put the dates in order and the timing problem is easy to see.
- April 2025. The Knox County Board of Education approved a $43.7 million contract with Merit Construction. Merit described a 720-day build for a school of about 1,400 K-5 students.
- May 2025. Ground was broken on Village Commons Boulevard, behind the Farragut Press office.
- June 2026. Boring Road was closed at Kingston Pike.
- September 24, 2026. The workshop ended without a decision.
- October 2026. The next workshop. No exact date has been announced yet.
- August 2027. The school is scheduled to open.
- Fall 2027. The earliest estimated finish for a permanent closure.
Knox County Schools' plan keeps two streams of traffic apart. Parents use Village Commons Boulevard and a drop-off line inside the loop on the south side of the school. Staff and buses use Smith Road and Boring Road to reach the back. In June, Williams described it this way: "the buses and soccer moms will be divorced."
Smith's report questions whether that split will hold:
"The staff assessment is that many parents will access Boring Road from Kingston Pike to drop students at the rear of the school, as well as return to Kingston Pike at Boring Road after drop-off."
He added that Knox County Schools does not intend to let parents into the rear lot from Boring Road, but Town staff isn't sure that can be enforced. If the barricade at Kingston Pike is still up when classes begin, that shortcut can't be used. If the Board picks right-in, right-out or reconstruction, opening day will come while the road is still in its current form or under construction.
What Neighbors Told the Board
Residents at the September 24 meeting disagreed with each other. Gerald Johnson, who moved to Boring Road last year, said drivers used it as a shortcut between Kingston Pike and Smith Road. "Before it was closed, they'd come through there literally going 50 and 60 miles an hour," he said. He supports keeping it closed.
A landowner wants to keep farming her property. "I can't get trailers. I can't get equipment to cut hay into the property without coming up from Kingston Pike," she said. Smith Road's curves make that route hard for equipment. She suggested keeping the road closed to through traffic while letting the school bus loop connect.
Pamela Brown, who lives on a cul-de-sac near Boring Road, is worried about turning onto Smith Road once the school's traffic arrives. "I just think we're gonna have some more traffic problems," she said.
The right-turn-only idea came from residents before staff put a price on it. In June, a resident wrote that being able to turn right in and right out at Kingston Pike "seems like a reasonable compromise instead of blocking the road completely." The resident mentioned the 32-home neighborhood being built next door. According to the meeting summary, Board members asked three things before deciding: a written traffic and enforcement plan from Knox County Schools, input from emergency services and a formal traffic-monitoring plan.
Getting Around While the Barricade Stays
For now, the main alternate route runs through Village Commons Boulevard and the new Stonemeade subdivision to the traffic light near the Farragut Press office. Residents use it, but it isn't a signed detour. The resident's letter said it adds about three-tenths of a mile each way. The resident also warned that on several stretches of Village Commons Boulevard, parked cars can back straight into the street. The landowner said the loop "is just not a time saver."
Some of the Town's related projects are moving no matter what happens with Boring Road. A June project update listed a multiway stop and reconstruction at Boring Road and Smith Road, a mid-block crossing on Boring Road, and a new access road connecting Sugarwood Drive to the Kingston Pike and Smith Road signal. The four-way stop at Smith addresses the other left turn that residents have worried about. The resident who had written about the barricade earlier described the slope there as hiding oncoming traffic. The Sugarwood connection would give one more subdivision a signalized way onto Kingston Pike.
If you drive this road, the October workshop is where the Board is expected to weigh the requested Knox County Schools traffic plan and emergency-services input against the August 2027 opening date.
At Martha Riordan, we keep track of road and school projects like this one because they change how a street works day to day, and that matters to the people who live on it. If you live off Boring Road, Smith Road or Village Commons Boulevard and want to talk through how these changes could affect your home, get in touch. We'll share what we're hearing and keep it straightforward.
