Lily Lake Road project paused by standoff between Nunda Township, sewer district

A road project meant to improve the safety of a stretch of Lily Lake Road southeast of McHenry where five people have been killed in crashes since 2015 is on hold as local officials haggle over who's responsible for relocating a sewer line.

The $1.3 million project, which is mostly being funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation with Nunda Township covering the remaining 10% of costs, involves removing hills on the road between Route 120 and South River Road to increase visibility for drivers.

But a contractor on the job, Curran Contracting, dug too close to a sewer line operated by the Northern Moraine Wastewater Reclamation District, according to the district president and Nunda Township meeting audio.

Progress has since stalled as officials discuss how to move forward, either by relocating the utility or changing the project plans.

Residents on the road — there are about 20 homes along it — are growing aggravated with the delays and the increased wear and tear on their vehicles from having to drive on a gravel road, since Lily Lake was torn up earlier during the work with plans to repave it.

The project started this spring, and residents said they were initially told it would be done by August. But it remains unfinished, and officials now hope to be able to open the road to through traffic before this winter.

"Everyone is understanding about road construction, but when you see no progress, it gets pretty frustrating. Our cars are getting beat up," Lily Lake Road resident Tom Svoboda said.

Some were unhappy with the project to begin with: "We bought this property because of the hills and how beautiful it is, and now they’re taking the hills out, they’re taking away part of the rusticness of this area," Lily Lake Road resident Colleen Hill said. "I would have voted against it."

Removing the hills on the road to increase visibility of oncoming traffic was laid out as a goal partly because of the 2015 fatalities of three teens in a crash on the road, as well as the deaths of two Crystal Lake men in 2017.

But before that work can finish the wastewater pipe exposed by the contractor must be addressed, Northern Moraine President Ken Michaels said.

The mishap hasn't resulted in any sewer service impacts in Lakemoor, where thousands of residents are served by the two main pipes running along Lily Lake, he said.

A proposal to split the cost between the township and the district was shot down, Michaels said. In a meeting last week, Nunda Township Highway Commissioner Mike Lesperance said it is standard for utilities to be relocated during this type of road project.

"The sanitary district is refusing to move or relocate their utility," Lesperance said. "It’s completely out of our control. It’s very frustrating to be so out of control."

Attempts to reach Lesperance this week were unsuccessful.

Michaels said he thinks officials on the road job failed to realize a sewer pipe was in the area when drawing the plans.

"My understanding is those plans do not even show the existence of our sewers, which amazed me," Michaels said. "It appears to me that somebody missed something very obvious."

Curran Contracting referred requests for comment to the Illinois Department of Transportation and engineering firm HR Green. A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Transportation did not respond to questions about the project, and a message left with a receptionist for HR Green seeking comment was not returned.

Michaels said an attorney for the district has prepared a legal complaint requesting injunctive relief to halt work on the road until a solution is reached. At least 4 feet of groundcover for the main pipes is needed, a buffer that has been encroached upon by the construction.

"The road design needed to be fixed, but no one told us," Michaels said. "This isn’t a project you show up at the door and say, 'Move your sewer.'"

The pipes' current exposure runs the risk of causing homes served by the sewer system to become uninhabitable, as well as environmental damage that could result from a break in line, he said.

"It’s not a question of willingness, it’s a question of planning and a question of who is responsible," Michaels said.