The Route 31 widening project – making the 6.8-mile roadway between between McHenry and Crystal Lake four lanes with a median – is projected to start in 2027 and finish in 2030.

To prepare for that $115 million project, work began in 2025 with crews removing trees and other brush lining the road, timed to protect bats overwintering in trees.

This year, crews from ComEd are moving power lines and other power infrastructure to make way for the Illinois Department of Transportation project, running Route 120 to Route 176.

Brian Runowski, ComEd’s vice president for projects and contracts, gave a breakdown of the company’s portion of the project, as well as the parallel wooden roads the ComEd crews are driving on as they make way for the new road.

For this project, the electricity utility is erecting 246 new power poles, moving or restringing 43 miles of electrical wire and laying 2,600 feet of underground cable, Runowski said.

They’re aiming to complete the work in December and hope to have little affect on drivers during that time, he added.

Part of how crews avoid disrupting traffic patterns is by using a network of temporary lanes parallel to the road – sections of planking laid down where the trees had already been removed.

As part of the company’s pre-project assessment, the environmental team determines if there are threatened species, wetlands or other concerns crews need to be aware of, Runowski explained.

“Up in that area, we have the rusty bee – that is a protected species," Runowski said. The rusty patched bumble bee was designated as an endangered species in 2017.

“That is where the wooden roadway comes into play,” he said. “We set our poles outside of their habitat” and the mats help protect the ground from being crushed, or the equipment sinking into the dirt.

“The wooden mats protect the wetlands and overall accessibility,” Runowski said. “With the mats, it is actually less pounds per square inch of impact on the ground” as compared to construction vehicles.

“They prevent rutting and the larger impact is it distributes the weight,” Runowski said.

Once the poles are reset and the wires strung, the mats are moved. They can also be stored from project-to-project, depending on if they were damaged, Runowski said.

A majority of the work is being done with live wires, so no power is getting interrupted as the new sections are put up and old poles taken down.

On the route between Crystal Lake and McHenry, drivers can already see where the poles are being moved on either side of the road – giving an idea of how the new road will flow once construction ends.

ComEd moves the poles as far back from the right-of-way as possible “to minimize the potential of another relocation in the future,” Runowski said. “Hopefully we’d only have to relocated two or three – not another 246."

In addition to working with IDOT, the utility works with municipalities were lines can also be underground, and other utilities stringing lines on the same poles.

“We coordinate with local entities as early as possible for coordinated public relations” if roads need to be closed while poles are moved or manholes accessed, Runowski said. “We rarely have to close a road in its entirety.”

Russ Adams, McHenry’s director of public works, said that IDOT has split the construction project into two legs – from Bull Valley Road north to Route 120 and from Bull Valley south to Route 176. Both contracts will be on their own schedules.

A pedestrian and biking path also is planned for the entire route.