Water Main Improvements Planned for Country Club Road Area

Work soon will begin on a three-year water main replacement project in the neighborhood near the Crystal Lake Country Club.

The first phase begins in June, once school has ended, and includes installation of new water mains along Country Club Road in Crystal Lake. The work is expected to be done before school resumes in the fall, weather permitting, city officials said.

Once Country Club Road improvements are done, main replacement will begin on Broadway Avenue, parallel to Country Club Road. That project is expected to finish by the end of October.

Next summer, new mains will be added on the smaller side streets including Essex, Riverside and Lakeside. That project should be done by September 2014, according to city plans.

The summer of 2015 belongs to new water main work on Meridian, Melrose, Oxford and Cumberland. That work is projected to start in May 2015, and end by August.

City documents show water mains in the Country Club area were installed in the 1960s and are "far beyond" the serviceable life. Existing mains are 4 to 8 inches. They will be replaced with mains that are 8 to 12 inches.

About 14,000 feet of existing water mains and related water service lines, valves and fire hydrants will be replaced, according to city documents.

Once all main work is finished, the city plans to resurface all roads in the area from August to October 2015.

New Bicycle Path

Erik Morimoto, Crystal Lake's director of engineering and building, said staffers have already begun the design phase to install a bicycle path along Country Club Road once all main and road resurfacing construction is completed.

The city has received a $250,000 Safe Routes to School Grant and is looking to connect the gravel bicycle path near the Wedgewood subdivision to a new path along the south side of Country Club Road, near the Crystal Lake Country Club Golf Course, he said.

"The trail will travel to Golf Road (near Lakeside Legacy-Dole Mansion and South Elementary School)," Morimoto said.