City Installs Barricades at Holding Hands Lot to Block Construction Shortcut

Drivers looking to dodge construction near the Holding Hands parking lot in Oxford found their shortcut closed off after the City Street Department installed barricades and posted "No Thru Traffic" signs in the lot on March 10.

The initial installation came after officials observed drivers cutting through the lot to bypass nearby intersection construction. The barricades and signage were intended to redirect traffic back onto the street network and away from the private lot.

The first round of barriers was not enough to stop the behavior. After drivers continued using the lot as a shortcut, the City Engineering Department stepped in and requested that additional barricades be placed. "At the request of the City Engineering Department, additional barricades were installed after drivers continued using the lot as a shortcut," according to a city Facebook post announcing the action.

The Holding Hands lot situation is one of several traffic disruptions hitting Oxford this week. On March 11, city and university debris contractors are closing the northbound lane on Gertrude Ford Avenue between Alumni Drive and West Jackson Avenue to clear debris using large equipment. During that operation, traffic is being diverted through the Gertrude Ford Center parking lot to Depot Street to reach West Jackson Avenue. Those closures are expected to last through daytime hours.

It remains unclear how long the Holding Hands barricades will stay in place, as no end date for the nearby intersection construction has been announced. The City Street Department and City Engineering Department have not publicly released specifics on the number or configuration of barricades installed.