With scissors in the hands of about two dozen government and community leaders, the northwest extension of Mack Hatcher Parkway was given a ceremonial green light Monday afternoon at the apex of the new roadway connecting Hillsboro Road to New Highway 96.

State and local officials participated in the ribbon cutting hosted by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which began working with the city of Franklin in 2007 to help turn a vision by then-Mayor John Schroer into a 3.1-mile reality. The road — technically State Route 397, or Mack C. Hatcher Memorial Parkway — actually opened a couple of weeks ago and has already lessened some traffic woes, according to Franklin Mayor Ken Moore.

“This is such an important project for our community,” Moore told the sun-drenched crowd, “and I’m glad to hear that already we’re seeing some relief of some of the traffic patterns we’ve seen. So we appreciate the opportunity to have this investment in our community, and we’ll continue to move forward with other projects working with TDOT.”

The project, which included a $45 million construction contract, $19 million for engineering and design, and another $5 million for inspection activity, got underway after a groundbreaking in January 2019. Schroer was at that ceremony in his final days as TDOT commissioner under Gov. Bill Haslam, and he reminded Monday’s crowd of how funding for the Mack Hatcher extension came through the Improve Act that Haslam signed into law in April 2017. The project was one of 962 across the state that were made possible by the new law.

“It was a plan to add money to the coffers of the state, and it did include a gas tax,” Schroer said. “Our legislators worked tirelessly to get this passed. It created 962 projects that were not [otherwise] going to be funded anytime soon to get built.”

The afternoon also included a dedication of the half-mile bridge to be named in memory of Charles Sargent, who served for 22 years as state representative from District 61 after sitting on the Williamson County Board of Commissioners for six years. Sargent died in November 2018.

“Charles was a consensus builder,” said Brandy Blanton, a Franklin alderman who was a close friend of Sargent’s and remains close to his wife, Nancy, and family. “He had no problem crossing the aisle, and it wasn’t about a political party, but about getting things done and about serving his community and the state.

“I’m so, so glad he is going to be honored and memorialized with the naming of the bridge. I thought about the fact that it crosses the Harpeth River twice. To me, it symbolizes his love of family and his love of community. But it also symbolizes his tenure here on the county commission level and as a state legislator.”

In addition to Moore, Schroer and Blanton, other speakers during the ceremony were TDOT Deputy Commissioner Paul Degges, Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson and state Rep. Sam Whitson from District 65.