Driving up North Chapel Drive to the traffic signal at the Route 19 intersection, I glanced to my right and exclaimed: Holey Moley!

There—with orange-and-white cautionary signs around it—was one deep hole!

Being a Patch editor, I just had to get a photo to post to show everyone else. So I pulled into the Aldi parking lot, climbed up the steep—but (mercifully) short—hill to the area that parallels Route 19 and started snapping photos.

I do not, by the way, recommend doing this. I stayed a healthy distance away from the traffic zooming by on Route 19 (Perry Highway) as I took photos. Then I slipped back down the parking lot hillside, shoes covered in mud.

As I glanced into the hole I initially spotted, I realized there is a nearly identical hole on the other side of North Chapel Drive.

So, I bring you this news in the hopes that you will be really careful at that intersection—especially at night. It's easy to see during daytime hours; I can imagine getting confused with all the road construction signs at night.

The construction work is part of the $18.1 million Wexford Flats Improvement Project that is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. (Did I just hear a Hallelujah?)

Although interminable delays, congestion and umpteen fender-benders have been aggravating during construction, I'm thinking positive thoughts about how much safer and less congested the road will be when everything is finished.

The project will widen Route 19 from 42 feet to 63 feet adding a center turn lane, curbed gutters and sidewalks. New, improved traffic signals will be added at eight intersections, including the one at North Chapel Drive/Manor Road.

The project encompasses 2.33 miles of Route 19 from about 300 feet north of Longvue Road (near the top of Pine Creek Hill) to just north of North Chapel/Manor Road.

PennDOT's prime contractor for the project is the Golden Triangle Construction Co. Inc. of Imperial. 

Please remember to drive cautiously as you pass the work crews—those workers are someone's dad, mom, sister, brother, son, daughter .... you get the point. Drive carefully for their sakes and for yours.

And, LOOK OUT FOR THOSE BIG HOLES.

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