Commuters who travel the Claribel Road corridor traveling from Oakdale or Riverbank towards Modesto and back each day should have been noticing some inconvenience beginning last weekend.

Large electronic signs warned of construction at the intersection of Claribel and Roselle Avenue that was set to begin this week and continue into November.

On Monday, Oct. 8, demolition crews were working to tear down and haul away the old wood frame house that once stood on the northeast corner of the intersection. Before that, progress on the project was gradual and hard to notice.

Earlier, local power companies had been working to remove poles and reroute the utility lines, fence lines were removed on the west side of Roselle, and survey stakes began appearing in the formerly fenced off land.

In addition to the obvious widening of the intersection, prior to installing stop lights there, the survey stakes indicate that Claribel will be widened toward the west, back toward the Crossroads Shopping Center, in what might be considered a logical extension of the North County Corridor the county has been working on for more than a decade.

It appears that the project will include wider lanes, including separate turn lanes, far more space than the original, four-way stop intersection provided.