The west leg of Miller Road at Randall Road in Lake in the Hills near Crystal Lake is set to reopen Friday for the holidays.

Mother Nature has dumped about a foot and a half of snow on the county in recent days, all of which delayed the reopening of the intersection by about a week, McHenry County Division of Transportation Assistant County Engineer Darrell Kuntz said Thursday.

Kuntz said officials were aiming to open the intersection last week, but the recent snowfall prevented some of the concrete and bridge work needed to do that.

He said county officials “cross our fingers this time of year,” and joked that they do anti-snow dances in hopes of keeping the work from being weather-prohibitive.

Kuntz said temporary pavement and markings were installed at the intersection Wednesday night. He got word at about 8 p.m. Wednesday that the holiday season reopening was going to happen for sure.

The intersection is expected to reopen around mid-morning Friday following the end of morning rush, McHenry County Division of Transportation Public Information Officer Hans Varga said Thursday.

Kuntz said crews “leveraged a few different tools that we don’t normally have to do this time of year.”

Those tools included heated blankets and ground heaters, which were used because “we don’t pave on frozen ground,” with both concrete and asphalt work, Kuntz said.

Snow was removed before the ground heaters were deployed, and winter blankets kept the concrete warm while it cured. Kuntz said the thermal blankets can be used if temperatures are close to the 30-degree window, which is common, but the ground heaters are much less common.

But time was of the essence as asphalt plants weren’t going to stay open past this week, and there weren’t other options to reopen the intersection, Kuntz said.

Crews also used a specific type of asphalt that is able to be placed at lower temperatures, Kuntz said.

Kuntz thanked the public for their patience and the contractors for being able to get the intersection open.

Varga said Division of Transportation staff and contractors put in a lot of effort to reopen the intersection because they wanted to have it done for the holidays for both residents and travelers in the area.

“We know it’s something that’s ... important to them,” Varga said, adding he knew “there was a lot of focus on that.”

McHenry County officials announced at the end of October they would aim to reopen the intersection with all of the turn options available before the closure for the holidays.

However, the intersection is expected to close again in the spring when crews remove a box culvert and install new pavement, according to a county news release.

Varga said the pavement at the intersection is temporary, and more permanent pavement will be installed when the weather warms up and that portion of the project is completed.

Randall Road is being widened to three lanes between McHenry Avenue in Crystal Lake and Acorn Lane/Polaris Drive in Lake in the Hills. The county previously widened a portion of Randall Road to the south, with that part of the construction wrapping up in 2021.

The contract for the current leg of the roadwork project is for about $63.5 million, but 80% of the cost is federally funded. The county is paying the other 20% from RTA sales tax funds and has been saving up to pay for its share.