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Rakow Road to expand in 2010

Work on a $30 million plan to remake one of McHenry County's busiest and most accident-prone thoroughfares should begin in about two years, county transportation officials said Tuesday.

The Rakow Road project, a plan to widen to as much as six lanes of the road straddling the Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills border and re-align its large curve to cut down on accidents, is in full swing and nearing completion of its first phase, according to a presentation before the McHenry County board.

Once environmental and engineering studies for the project wrap up this summer, the county's division of transportation will begin drawing up construction contracts and purchasing right-of-way from 36 properties along the 3-mile stretch.

Barring any setbacks, that sets the timeline for actual construction to begin in 2010, welcome news for anyone accustomed to the long rush-hour delays along Rakow.

"It's a very important project for the southeast part of the county, not just for traffic relief, but for safety," McHenry County Board member James Kennedy said.

Kennedy should know. As a Lake in the Hills resident and former village trustee, Kennedy is familiar with traffic backups along Rakow and local residents' desire for the county to do something about it.

"They'll be happy to see improvement in the traffic flow there," he said.

Officials say the project is as much about safety as it is about eliminating congestion. Between 2004 and 2006, that stretch produced 566 crashes and 171 injuries, though, fortunately, none fatal.

About 71 percent of those were rear-end collisions, a sign of extreme congestion, officials said.

Under the plan, Rakow will be widened to six lanes between Ackman and Pyott roads and to four lanes between Pyott and Route 31. New right-turn lanes and double left-turn lanes will be built at the road's major intersections.

Eastbound and westbound traffic will be separated by a grass barrier median 10 to 30 feet wide and the curve between McHenry Avenue and Pyott will be flattened to allow traffic to pass through the area safely without slowing considerably.

The proposal also calls for construction of an overpass at Pyott Road for bicyclists using the Prairie Trail bike path.

It will not, however, include pedestrian crossings.

"Having people trying to walk across six to nine lanes of traffic would be a disaster waiting to happen," said Dan Shea, chairman of the county board's transportation committee.

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