Roundabout Construction At Chucky Mullins Intersection Set To Begin In May

It’s no surprise that traffic in Oxford has increasingly become an issue as construction of new developments continues to take shape all across the town.

One area of concern in particular, however, is about to be resolved.
In May, construction of a new roundabout will begin at the intersection of Hill Drive and Chucky Mullins Drive. 
Jon Scott, director of public relations at the University of Mississippi, said that because of the traffic that flows through this intersection each day, there was no question as to where to begin. 
“There is a great need for relief at the intersection between Hill Drive and Chucky Mullins,” Scott said. “The roundabout is relatively standard. The main difference on this one is that it is designed to have additional capacity to accept a contra-flow system of traffic driving up Hill Drive from the football stadium giving a two-lane exit to Highway 6 after games.”
In the past, Ole Miss has experimented with new traffic patterns by shutting down the on-ramps to Chucky Mullins Drive from Highway 6 after football and basketball games in an effort to help traffic flow more smoothly.
Ole Miss student Grant Osborne said he believes a roundabout will help tremendously, but he’s not convinced it will solve the problem.  
“I like the roundabouts because I think they keep traffic flowing pretty good, but as Oxford keeps getting larger and larger, I think they’re going to run into problems with too many cars trying to get through it at once, and it’s just going to be an overload,” Osborne said. “The roundabout is nice, but there needs to be a better long-term solution.”
Construction of the Chucky Mullins Drive roundabout is expected to cause minimal problems for drivers as a majority of Ole Miss students will be gone for the summer. 
“There will be no traffic through the site,” Scott said. “All traffic, except for utility golf cart traffic, will be rerouted away from the construction zone.”
Scott said the roundabout is expected to be complete before the first home football game. 

By Wes Cooper an intern for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at jwcooper@go.olemiss.edu.
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