Huntley moves to next step of Kreutzer Road realignment plans

Huntley is one step closer to starting work on a 6,500-foot stretch of Kreutzer Road, but work starting could still be more than two years away.

The Village Board at its meeting last week approved initial engineering costs for the second phase of its plans and designs, and approved staff moving forward with an application for state funding for the project.

The project includes a 1.5-mile stretch of road from Route 47 to Haligus Road and is expected to cost about $12 million.

Phase two of the project’s design plans, which was officially kicked off with the village’s approvals last week, continues the village’s efforts to prepare for work on the road, and will focus more on the finer details of the project, Director of Public Works and Engineering Timothy Farrell said.

The project will improve sharp curves along the stretch, widen the two-lane Kreutzer Road and add a third turn lane in the center, along with installing a sidewalk path.

The main crux of the work comes at a steep curve in the road leading up to a train track, village documents show. The design chosen would allow a gentler curve leading up to the tracks.

“I’m for this. This is fine,” Trustee Harry Leopold said Thursday. “This was the [design] I wanted.”

The project’s estimated total of about $12 million will primarily come from the village, Farrell said. The village is locked in for $1.5 million in grants from the federal government, but hopes to get another $3.5 million. The remaining $7 million will come from the village.

At this point, it’s not known what the sources of revenue will be for that $7 million, Farrell said.

Village President Timothy Hoeft said at the meeting the village needs to figure out the funding. He added that just because there’s design work being done at this point doesn’t mean a new road will be built by 2025.

“There’s a big number at the end, and there’s not a true path to get there right now,” Hoeft said. “But eventually we’ll figure that part out, but we need to take it step-by-step for now.”

The project is part of the village’s 2025 fiscal year, which starts in October 2024, meaning work starting for the stretch of road could be at least another two years out, Farrell said.

The village began plans for the project in February 2020, when it approved a contract with Patrick Engineering Inc. out of Chicago, village documents show. The newest contract, approved last Thursday, is for about $970,000 to carry out phase two engineering work.

Beyond this stretch of road, Kreutzer has been a focus of the village in recent months. In August, trustees discussed placing a roundabout at the intersection of Kreutzer and Huntley-Dundee Road to help stave off a number of crashes that have happened in the area.

Trustees were mostly in favor of it, but before anything can be approved, studying the area and bidding out the project would need to take place.