McHenry County has been awarded over $2 million in federal money for safety improvements on Charles Road in the Woodstock area.

The grant is meant to help with construction costs for a roundabout at the Charles and Queen Anne roads intersection, Scott Hennings, the county’s assistant director of transportation, said, although construction is a couple of years away.

Hennings said it would be great to have a roundabout.

“As I like to say all the time ... people don’t die in roundabouts, right?” Hennings said, adding crashes near roundabouts tend to be less severe because people are driving at slower speeds.

Hennings said traffic entering the intersection at “a high rate of speed” is what causes many of the high-injury crashes.

Charles Road is among what are known as high-injury networks in the county, where there have been a disproportionately high number of fatalities or injuries. Hennings said the Charles and Queen Anne roads intersection has been a longtime safety concern.

In addition to poor sight lines, there is a curve to the west of the intersection where people have gone off the road, Hennings said, adding the county is trying to reduce speed there.

The speed limit on Charles Road is 50 mph through that stretch. The McHenry County Board lowered the speed limit on Charles Road between Route 120/Greenwood Road and Route 47 to 50 mph in 2024. It previously was 55 mph.

Queen Anne Road has a stop sign, and there are yellow signs indicating a curve and a suggested speed limit of 50 mph along Charles Road, according to Google street view.

The $2.25 million grant is expected to cover more than half of the construction costs.

“It’ll go a long way to help,” Hennings said.

The federal money was awarded as part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, which aims to get to zero fatalities on the road system.

Hennings said the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning worked with McHenry and the other counties in the region to develop a safety action plan for their counties, which identified high-injury networks.

The County Board signed off on a “Vision Zero” policy last year, which aims to get to zero road fatalities. The policy was required in order to access federal funding in the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. It also unlocked the ability for townships and municipalities to apply, county officials confirmed at the time.

Hennings said it might be the division’s first time getting a discretionary grant directly from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Typically, the grants are pass-throughs from another entity, such as the Illinois Department of Transportation or the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Hennings added McHenry County was the only county in Illinois to get a grant directly for construction work, but other entities had received grants for planning. He gave credit to a consulting team the Division of Transportation worked with on the grant.

Hennings said the county hopes to apply for Safe Streets for All funding for other projects in the future, and several projects are in progress that the county could apply for.

However, he noted there’s been talk of the program being eliminated. Hennings said the county hopes the program will continue but noted the current administration might have “different priorities around that program.”