Fort Loudoun Dam - Capacity and Dimensions

Capacity and Dimensions

Fort Loudoun Dam is 122 feet (37 m) high and stretches 4,190 feet (1,280 m) across the Tennessee River. The reservoir has 379 miles (610 km) of shoreline, 14,600 acres (5,900 ha) of water surface, and a flood storage capacity of 111,000 acre feet (137,000,000 m3). The dam is equipped with a 60-by-360-foot (18 by 110 m) lock that raises and lowers boats about 70 feet (21 m) between Fort Loudoun Lake (upstream) and Watts Bar Lake (downstream). There are four hydroelectric generators at the dam with a combined generation capacity of 155.6 megawatts of electricity.

To augment Fort Loudoun's power production capacity, water from the Little Tennessee River is diverted into Fort Loudoun Lake via a short canal extending from Tellico Reservoir a short distance upstream of the nearby Tellico Dam. The canal is roughly a half-mile long and effectively creates an island with Fort Loudoun Dam at its northeastern tip and Tellico Dam at its southwestern tip. The canal also allows navigation by barge-size craft between the Tellico Reservoir and Fort Loudoun Lake.