Drivers who have to use the detour for the Miller Road closure in Lake in the Hills will be getting a holiday gift from McHenry County.

The west leg of the Miller Road intersection with Randall Road, which has been closed since July, is going to be open for the winter starting in early December, pending cooperative weather, county officials said in a news release.

Darrell Kuntz, the McHenry County Division of Transportation’s assistant county engineer, said the project was at a point where the team could open up that leg of Miller with a new bridge and some temporary pavement that will allow for all the different turns available at the intersection before construction began.

Motorists in the area have been rerouted on a detour using Algonquin, Lakewood and Ackman roads.

As the project progressed, Kuntz said county officials, working with contractors, floated the idea to “give the residents and the shoppers in this area some relief” during the winter and holiday months, “instead of just keeping it closed.”

It is going to require some effort on the county’s part to have the contractor “kind of bag up all the detour signs” and open them in the spring, Kuntz said, but the benefit to the public is worth it.

Hans Varga, the Division of Transportation public information officer, said Friday that funds had been allocated and there are no additional charges related to the intersection reopening. Varga said the Division of Transportation won’t seek any additional funding to reopen Miller temporarily.

Kuntz said a temporary reopening is pretty rare for McHenry County projects but more common for Illinois Tollway and Illinois Department of Transportation projects.

The Randall project has encountered some delays, but county officials hope that giving drivers a break from the detour will be well received.

“We’re hoping that the public likes this option to open this up instead of keeping it closed,” Kuntz said. “We feel like it’s going to help with just traveling around, the residents that live there but also with the busy shopping season that’s going to be down towards this commercial district just south of here.”

Kuntz added: “I do think when the project is complete, it will be a really great improvement for the area.”

But drivers will have to deal with the detour again in the spring, when the west leg of Miller Road will be closed again. Workers will remove a box culvert at the Miller and Randall roads intersection and install new pavement, according to the release.

Kuntz said he wasn’t sure when the detour would be back, estimating it might start in April or May and last for another two months.

While the Miller closure has been going on, Crystal Lake closed Bradford Lane at Miller Road to try to reduce cut-through traffic. The closure is expected to last as long as the Miller closure is, according to the Randall Road project website.

There is an online petition encouraging the city to reopen Bradford Lane.

Kuntz said the closure had caused “quite a bit of a stir” in the area and it might come back, but it’s up to Crystal Lake.

Varga said the county thought its detour has been successful but is planning to reach out to Google and Waze in hopes that they will show the detour as the standard route while it’s in place, as opposed to those apps currently taking people on the fastest route.

As long as the weather cooperates, crews will work on ground improvements, timber pile installation and other excavation and storm sewer work over the winter, Kuntz said.