It has been a long process, but the funds were approved Tuesday for four upcoming Kankakee County road projects at the Kankakee County Board meeting.

Two of the projects are on roads in St. Anne that have been in the works for several months, including Guertin Street that had been under construction in the past couple of years for a water main project.

“It’s been a mess for a long time,” said Todd Sirois, who represents the St. Anne area on the Board. “I’m finally glad it’s coming around.”

The board unanimously approved an agreement with Hutchison Engineering, of Shorewood, appropriating $440,604 in state and local funds for preliminary design and construction engineering for a full-width pavement reconstruction on County Highway 23 (Guertin Street) from Illinois Route 1 to 8500 East Road in St. Anne Township.

As reported by Shaw Media in October 2025, the $3 million project was included in $7.9 million in grants the county was awarded from the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“This resolution to appropriate the money for design is coming out of that $3 million, so that’s all state money being spent,” county Engineer Greg Heiden said. “It’s basically a total reconstruction, which means it’s pretty involved. You’ve got a lot of environmental studies. We have to do a lot more design work than the previous jobs, the safety shoulders, but this would get the ball rolling on that.”

The timeline on the approximate quarter-mile project is that it could start in 2026, but it could be pushed back to 2027. Heiden said it’s a “coin toss” of when it might start, but he didn’t rule out this year.

“You have to depend on IDOT for getting all your studies approved,” he said. “If they drag their feet, then we sit and wait.”

Sirois said he knows residents hate to wait for the project to be completed, but he’d rather it all be done right so the street will be good for 10 to 15 years.

“For those that don’t know, there was a major water project that went down the center of the street … and that has caused a lot of settling, a lot of dips in the road,” Sirois said.

The other road project in the St. Anne area is on County Highway 53 (7000S Road), which extends east from Guertin Street. The Board approved an agreement with Hutchison Engineering, appropriating $87,440 in funds for safety shoulder work from 8500S Road to the Indiana state line.

“And with our project, with the FS Grain expansion, there’s going to be a lot of truck traffic through there,” Sirois said. “So beefing these roads up is going to help everybody, especially if you ever wanted to get to [U.S. Route] 41 on the south side of the county, you know you’re going to have a smooth ride finally.”

Board member Rosemary Foster, who represents Pembroke Township, said improving Guertin and 7000S Road will relieve traffic through the area.

“That means we don’t have those 18-wheelers coming down our road in Pembroke Township, so kudos to you,” she said.

The County Highway 53 project’s total cost is $2.2 million, which is also included in the grant awarded from IDOT.

“The good part is, it’s state money,” Heiden said.

Other projects

Two other road projects were also approved on Tuesday.

One is $32,200 in county bridge funds for bridge replacement on County Highway 17 (8000E Road) over Exline Slough. The total cost of that project is $911,000 after it was initially thought to cost $750,000, so the $32,200 is to cover the 20% of the $161,000 increase in the total expenditure.

“The state pays the difference to get us up to that $911,000 amount,” Heiden said.

The other appropriation approved was $85,550 in matching funds for engineering services from Hutchison for safety shoulder widening on County Highway 8 (St. George Road) from 2000E Road to Illinois Route 1 in Bourbonnais and Ganeer townships. It’s part of a $2.2 million project on the approximate 9.5-mile stretch with asphalt shoulders, rumble strips and new pavement markings.

“This contract is for the consultant to design the work, go through the environmental approvals, all that fun stuff,” Heiden said. “... We can anticipate getting this built this year.”