The $6.5 million McHenry has set aside for the city’s portion of the Route 31 widening project is expected to fall about $1 million short, but the McHenry City Council has time to make up the difference.

The Council this week unanimously approved agreements with the Illinois Department of Transportation allowing McHenry to pay the state about $1.5 million each year. The money goes toward the city’s portion of widening Route 31 to two lanes in either direction from Route 176 in Crystal Lake to Route 120 in McHenry.

Upon completion of the project or by May 15, 2030 – whichever is later – McHenry will pay off the remaining balance, according to the payment schedule negotiated by Russ Adams, director of public works.

“With the funding that we have, there is enough to cover the next four years, through 2029,” Adams said, adding that the final number is, in 2030, will not be known until the project is bid by IDOT, expected in January.

Current estimates on the total cost of the project are about $115 million, with the city’s portion about $7.3 million. But that latter could change if the overall cost for the project ends up exceeding the budgeted amount.

The project is set for two bids, splitting the work into a north and south leg. The stretch from Bull Valley Road north to Route 120 is one contract, and the second contract will cover the road from Bull Valley Road south to Route 176, Adams said. Both contracts will be on their own schedules.

In preparation for the yearslong roadwork, trees along Route 31 were cleared beginning in early 2025. The next part of the project will relocate utilities out of the future roadway.

“Assuming that both contracts are on the January 2026 [bid] letting as currently proposed by IDOT, I would expect work to begin late in 2026. If either contract is delayed, then this could all change,” Adams said.

It is that potential change that has some council members worried in McHenry. When IDOT went to bid on widening Route 47 through Woodstock, those bids came in millions over initial estimates and has delayed construction by a year.

“There is going to be a big nut to crack” to make that final payment, Alderman Andy Glab, Ward 2, said, adding that with inflationary factors, “We don’t know where we are going to be” financially in 2030.

Previous City Councils have acted appropriately, setting aside federal COVID-19 relief and fund balance excess over the past two years to pay the bill, City Administrator Suzanne Ostrovsky said. She hopes future city budgets will continue to save toward the mandated funding for Route 31 construction.

“We will have plenty of time to have the appropriate conversations with the Council” over the next four years, Ostrovsky said.

One thing McHenry won’t be paying for is the pedestrian and bike lanes planned for the project. Originally, the city was given a grant for the lanes set to run parallel to Route 31, but the state has instead rolled that cost – and the funding – into the project.

“We are no longer financially responsible for that part of the project,” Adams said.

He hopes the city will be able to give residents timely updates on the Route 31 construction timeline once staff knows more from IDOT.

“The city of McHenry will do its best to provide additional information to the community as each contract is awarded and we gain a better understanding of the work plan and timeline for each contract,” Adams said.