Road and development projects are always ongoing in Oxford and Lafayette County, but every once in a while they transform from the mundane asphalt and construction bidding and are about seismic waves and Russian nuclear bombs. Check out yesterday’s papers from 2009, 1996, 1992 and 1964.

Oct. 7, 2009

West Oxford congestion may ease

A Christmas deadline will be met and the city will save money by not putting a traffic light construction project up for bid and keeping the job in house.

The long-awaited and much-needed traffic signal at West Oxford Loop and West Jackson Avenue was taken off the Board of Aldermen meeting agenda and will not be put up for bid.

Once installed, the eastbound traffic on Jackson Avenue will have two straight lanes and one left-turn lane onto West Oxford Loop. Motorists on the Loop will have a light to turn left onto Jackson Avenue, which has been a source of contention for many residents of Woodlawn.

Oct. 8, 1996

Road plan approved for new Lafayette County High School

The final piece of the puzzle finally fell into place just in time for today’s groundbreaking for the new Lafayette County High School.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation has given approval to the school for the expanded entrance and exit roads from Highway 334 on to campus.

With the new plan the school will have three exits and entrances instead of the road first planned, and one of those roads will become an exit.

Oct. 7, 1992

Meeting slated to discuss Toby Tubby Creek project

Final planning starts after this week’s public meeting for the long-awaited Toby Tubby Creek flood and erosion control project.

The Soil Conservation Service is sponsoring the meeting with representatives from its watershed planning staff meeting with interested residents.

The project is slated for completion in three years at an estimated $3.2 million cost. Areas impacted in two phases will be Leighton, Philip and Clubview Roads and Garner Street, as well as the apartment complexes and condominiums located in the flood plain south of Bonanza Restaurant and the area south of All-American Plaza and the Ewing Trailer Park and Anderson Road areas.

Oct. 8, 1964

Ole Miss seismic station to record Salmon Shot atomic blast

When the atomic blast “Salmon Shot” explodes at Baxterville this week it will be the first controlled earthquake for Fred E. Fallowill, seismologist and director of the Seismological Observatory at the University of Mississippi.

The university’s seismic station is located about 20 miles from Oxford and east of Abbeville and is just one in the Worldwide Seismic Network, which monitors the earth’s movements.

The monitoring will help determine if Russian nuclear devices can go undetected in violation of any future underground nuclear test treaties. A treaty now prohibits testing in the atmosphere but permits underground testing.