County driving ahead with Algonquin bypass planning

It may not provide much comfort the next time you're stalled in traffic trying to get through downtown Algonquin, but the long-awaited and oft-delayed Western Algonquin Bypass finally may be inching forward.

The McHenry County Board unanimously approved a $2.9 million agreement Tuesday for the second phase of engineering of the proposed bypass that would detour traffic on Route 31 around Algonquin's congested downtown.

The process includes final design engineering and creation of bid documents, and should take about two years, Assistant County Engineer Jeff Young said.

After that, construction is the next step.

"Construction is possible right away, if the funding is available," Young said. "It depends on whether all the right-of-way is secured and the funding is there."

Unfortunately for drivers in the southeast portion of the county, that's a big "if."

Despite the efforts of local officials and state legislators from the county, there currently is no money in the state budget, or in a state capital spending bill, to fund construction of the estimated $70 million project.

When officials first approved the bypass plan about a decade ago, which would start at Huntington Drive south of downtown, veer west and continue to Cary-Algonquin Road, its costs were estimated closer to $40 million.

Since then, problems securing state funding and environmental issues such as concerns over an endangered bat possibly living in the road's path, have delayed the project over and over.

"The snags we've run into have been tremendous, and there have been so many of them," said Dan Shea, chairman of the McHenry County Board's Transportation Committee.

The federal authorities have pledged $9 million to the project, some of which is being used for the second engineering phase, but the rest must come from state and county coffers.