The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has announced a list of “priority projects” for 2025-26, a few of which can ultimately help bicyclists in far suburbs.
The three far suburban projects are:
- The Old McHenry Road grade separation and intersection improvements in Hawthorn Woods, where the road intersects railroad tracks, Quentin Road, Midlothian Road, Fairfield Road and Echo Lake Road. A bike path is included.
- Randall Road at I-90, with a bike path included. This comes on top of a project to improve Randall Road at Hopps Road in Elgin Township.
- Gougar Road in Will County, with a trail connection to the Old Plank Trail.
The projects have been in the works for a long time. CMAP’s list means these are projects it and other regional agencies have agreed should now be a priority in the pursuit of federal transportation funding.
Old McHenry Road project
The Old McHenry Road project got started in earnest in 2021, when engineering began. Public hearings took place last year, and now if funding is secured, more design engineering can be done and even construction could begin, though it’s expected to take at least a couple of years; “2027+” is what’s on the timeline for construction.
The completed project would be quite a relief for drivers at the busy stretch that involves the four intersections and railroad tracks. When a train comes on a weekday, you’ll certainly see a line of cars waiting a bit, and if you happen to be bicycling at that time, you’ll see that there’s not a lot of room left (Old McHenry at the railroad tracks is shown in the picture above — hardly a shoulder there). Especially later on weekdays, the intersections are crowded enough.
One cool video on the project web page shows how the whole thing would look, with bridges and the bike path on the north side of the road. Even with the path and striping shown, the big intersections still look formidable for a bicyclist.
The project will radically change Old McHenry Road through Hawthorn Woods, but the road doesn’t change to the east especially in Long Grove, so I expect it’ll remain a great road for cycling and part of one of my favorite rides.
Randall Road projects
The project for Randall Road at I-90 covers a stretch between Higgins Road (Route 72) and Big Timber Road. Work began with a planning and environmental study in 2021, and public information meetings began in 2023, running through last year. On the schedule, a final report is slated for “fall/winter 2024”; it does not appear on the project website yet.
Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is in the plans so far. The video below shows a paved path on usually one side of Randall, occasionally both sides — and a few times riders would have to cross Randall to the other side as they progress through the corridor. Paths are sometimes seen starting down intersecting streets. Intersections still look intimidating to cross, even with refuge islands on some turns.
The Randall-I-90 project comes on the heels of a project on Randall at Hopps Road, on the Elgin-South Elgin border. That project, one of CMAP’s 2024 priority projects, received $25 million in federal funds in January 2024. It includes a bike path on the west side of Randall Road, with concrete protection on a bridge that would be built over the Canadian National railroad tracks.
You can see the animation showing the path as well as the project landing page, plus the engineer’s page on the project. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
Gouger Road
The Gouger Road project in Will County runs from Francis Road to Laraway Road, through parts of Joliet and New Lenox but mostly through farmland. The plans call for a multi-use path on the east side of Gouger, crossing the Old Plank Trail. It’ll keep going north past U.S. Route 30 to connect Old Plank with the Joliet Park District’s regional trails in Pilcher Park. Pedestrian signals and a refuge island are proposed at the Old Plank Trail.
Construction so far is expected to begin in 2026. The project also has its own website.
Also from 2024: Cedar Lake Road
Getting on CMAP’s priority project list gives a project some hope. Just like the Randall-Hopps project, the Cedar Lake Road realignment in Lake County, between Hart and Nippersink roads (even a little beyond them) and through downtown Round Lake, got on the 2024 list; then in June it got $18.8 million in federal funding. The alignment was first studied in 1979!
A bike path is planned on the east side of Cedar Lake Road, connecting to a path already to the south on Cedar Lake, and ultimately to other paths to the north including the Millennium Trail. Based on the background and process outlined on the website, it looks like construction wouldn’t begin until 2027.
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