Towns pool funds for improving mall-area traffic

Carpentersville and West Dundee are pooling funds to improve the often choked traffic conditions at Huntley Road and Route 31.

The project is expected to cost $4.16 million.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning will furnish $3.33 million.

Carpentersville will pony up $431,200.

West Dundee and General Growth Properties, which owns Spring Hill Mall and the 31-acre site of the proposed Wal-Mart, will contribute $100,000 and $300,000, respectively.

Though details are yet to be finalized, through lanes and turn lanes are expected to be added as well as widened.

Though the intersection falls within Carpentersville's jurisdiction, most of the corridor's retail space that attracts thousands of motorists a day -- like Spring Hill Mall -- belongs to West Dundee.

The proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter at Huntley Road and Elm Avenue in West Dundee will also include an entrance from Huntley Road.

"Our argument was that that intersection needs work now," said Carpentersville Village Manager Craig Anderson. "And whenever Wal-Mart or whatever goes in there, that will just add to the traffic congestion."

Village officials from West Dundee recognize the benefits of overhauling the thoroughfare.

"It will be an advantage to both villages," West Dundee Trustee Joseph Motyl said.

"Even though it is in Carpentersville, that street has access to the mall and that is an advantage to West Dundee."