Lake Co. motorists tread carefully

As Lake County motorists ventured from their neighborhoods Thursday, many for the first time since the blizzard began Tuesday afternoon, the conditions of the roads they traversed differed from town to town — and sometimes block to block.

Some stretches of Route 83 through Long Grove were fully plowed and wide enough for two lanes of cars to travel in either direction. In other sections, however, the road narrowed to one lane of traffic each way because snow had been plowed onto the outermost lanes.

The resulting bottlenecks caused some minor backups.

Traffic jams were longer, however, in other communities with similar conditions.

In Mundelein, much of Route 45 was down to one lane in each direction — and sometimes less than that. In some stretches, cars were forced to drive on the median because of snow mounds that were blocking the road.

Mundelein’s local neighborhood roads were better off, Mayor Kenneth H. Kessler said.

“All the streets are essentially passable and in very good shape for the amount of snow we had,” Kessler said shortly before midday Thursday.

Kessler estimated it could be more than a week before the streets are fully snow-free. Special vehicles and equipment will be needed to move — and in some cases, remove — the large piles of snow now lining roadways and occupying corners, he said.

To the southeast, conditions on Route 21 through Lincolnshire were similar to those on the area’s other state routes.

The normally busy road was down to 1½ lanes is most spots and fewer in others because the snow hadn’t been plowed all the way to the curb, Mayor Brett Blomberg said.

“It’s like a goat path,” Blomberg said. “Once in a while you get a glimpse of where the road is. It just sort of wanders.”

Route 22 was a little better, Blomberg said. Overall, however, he said the village’s roads “are in pretty good shape.”

All of Island Lake’s roads were drivable by Thursday morning, Mayor Debbie Herrmann said. With cars able to get around, public works crews were focused on pushing snow back off corners to improve visibility, she said.

Clearing snow off fire hydrants was a priority, too, Herrmann said.