Transportation projects on tap in Lake County will link regional trails and address ‘near misses’
Two impactful transportation projects to fill a key trail gap and reduce traffic accidents are set to get underway in central Lake County.
Contracts totaling nearly $7 million were awarded this week by the Lake County Board to improve safety at a busy intersection in Gurnee and to link regional trails in Vernon Hills and Libertyville.
The first is for $3.12 million to Alliance Contractors of Woodstock to a build a trail on the east side of Butterfield Road from Gregg’s Parkway in Vernon Hills north to Golf Road in Libertyville.
The project was identified in the Lake County Division of Transportation’s 2024 nonmotorized improvement plan to close a “priority gap” of about 1.1 miles in the path network.
Butterfield Road is a county highway and LCDOT oversees about 60 miles of bike trails in its road system.
“This is filling in a strategic nonmotorized gap on Butterfield Road,” Shane Schneider, LCDOT director and county engineer, said during a recent overview.
The new trail segment will provide access from Golf Road south to a large network of Vernon Hills trails ultimately leading to the Des Plaines River Trail.
Travelers heading north will be able to connect with the Libertyville Township system and link to the North Shore Bike Path that runs east/west along Route 176 about eight miles between Mundelein and Lake Bluff.
“For this region, this is such an important connector to have a safe way for people to travel between Vernon Hills and Libertyville and to connect to all those different bike trails,” said Jennifer Clark, a Libertyville resident and chair of the county board’s public works and transportation committee.
The county board appropriated $3.75 million to cover contingencies and address potential changes. The project is expected to begin at the end of August and be completed by the end of the year.
In Gurnee, dual left turn lanes in each direction will be added on Washington Street and the right turn lane on Route 21 extended at the busy intersection adjacent to Six Flags Great America.
Schneider told the committee there were 110 crashes with 43 resulting in injury and one fatality at the intersection between 2018-22.
“As we developed the design through our planning process we had cameras that monitor the intersection,” he said. “There was a pretty frequent occurrence of what we call near misses” of vehicles making left turns narrowly missing oncoming traffic.
New traffic signals are part of the project and operations will be changed to allow left turns on green arrows only, he said.
The intersection does not meet at right angles and the geometry will be modified, Schneider said.
“It is a very precarious intersection,” Clark noted.
The project is scheduled to begin at the end of August with pavement and related work to be done this season. Because of the long lead time, new traffic signals will be installed next year.
Alliance Contractors was the low bidder and awarded a $3.65 million contract. The county board appropriated $4.38 million for the project.