Drivers to get holiday reprieve from Lake in the Hills road closure

Drivers affected by the Miller Road closure in Lake in the Hills will be getting a holiday gift from McHenry County.

The west leg of the Miller Road intersection with Randall Road, which has been closed since July, will open for the winter starting in early December, assuming cooperative weather, county officials said.

Darrell Kuntz, the McHenry County Division of Transportation’s assistant county engineer, said the project is at a point where the team could open up that leg of Miller with a new bridge and some temporary pavement. That will allow for all the different turns available at the intersection before construction began.

Drivers have been rerouted on a detour using Algonquin, Lakewood and Ackman roads.

As the project progressed, Kuntz said county officials, working with contractors, floated the idea to “give the residents and the shoppers in this area some relief” during the winter and holiday months.

It is going to require some effort on the county’s part to have the contractor “kind of bag up all the detour signs” and open them in the spring, Kuntz said, but the benefit to the public is worth it.

Division of Transportation spokesman Hans Varga said there are no additional charges related to the intersection reopening.

The Randall project has encountered some delays, but county officials hope that giving drivers a break from the detour will be well received.

“We feel like it’s going to help with just traveling around, the residents that live there but also with the busy shopping season that’s going to be down towards this commercial district just south of here,” Kuntz said.

Drivers will have to deal with the detour again in the spring, when the west leg of Miller Road will be closed again. Workers will remove a box culvert at the Miller and Randall roads intersection and install new pavement, according to the county.

Kuntz said he isn’t sure when the detour would be back, estimating it might start in April or May and last for another two months.

While the Miller closure has been going on, Crystal Lake closed Bradford Lane at Miller Road to reduce cut-through traffic. The closure is expected to last as long as the Miller closure is, according to the Randall Road project website.

There is an online petition encouraging the city to reopen Bradford Lane.