Randall Road Widening Project Hits Snag, Officials Grapple Over Next Steps

The McHenry County Board met on Friday as the board tries to decide whether to reboot the Randall Road widening project, which has been in the works for years but has recently hit a road pump after a committee rejected allocating $10 million toward a land purchase, according to the Northwest Herald.

Board members heard from county staff and consultants during a Friday workshop and also from politicians and business owners who pleaded with the board to keep the long-planned project moving forward, according to the article.

>> View the county’s full presentation online

The snag in the project lies in a recent decision by the McHenry County Board’s Transportation Committee to reject allocating $10 million toward a land purchase to help move the project forward, the Northwest Herald reports in a May 3 article. Allocation of that money has not been brought to the county board for a vote. And the board has a growing number of members questioning the necessity of the widening project in its current form or at all.

Traffic woes along Randall Road have been an ongoing issue for years and the $97 million widening project is expected to address just that. So far, $19 million has been spent for engineering and land acquisition.

The project is to be constructed in two major segments (from south to north). The first segment would be constructed from Harnish Drive to Acorn Lane/Polaris Drive, including the Randall/Algonquin intersection and the second segment would be constructed from Acorn Lane/Polaris Drive to Ackman Road Construction is currently slated to begin in 2017 and wrap up by 2019.

So, what’s next? County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller, R-Crystal Lake, said the county board’s Committee of a Whole will have to decide whether to allocate the $10 million for the land purchase, according to the Northwest Herald.

More via the Randall Road Corridor Improvements website and the Northwest Herald

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