Kane roundabout opens for traffic with ribbon-cutting

BLACKBERRY TOWNSHIP – A new roundabout that connects the realigned Bliss Road with Main Street and Fabyan Parkway in rural Kane County was celebrated Nov. 16 with a ribbon-cutting.

The estimated $12 million project was in the planning stage since 1996 and took two years to build, ultimately creating an alternative continuous north-south corridor between Randall Road and Route 47.

Main Street had a signal at its intersection with Fabyan Parkway and another signal at the Bliss Road intersection resulting in traffic backups and car crashes. The roundabout, west of Batavia, will save lives by creating a safer way to travel, Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said.

“You could not ask for a prettier road,” Pierog said, addressing a small crowd that gathered in a cool breeze in the bright November sunshine.

“Today, we stand on a significant project to be completed. … What an amazingly concrete example of the work – the fine, excellent, exceptional work – the county does to serve its citizens,” Pierog said. “It keeps our motorists moving to make commerce efficient, to make our transportation, our travels to see our family, our friends [and] our doctors efficient.”

Pierog said she’s watched the progress because she lives nearby.

“Sometimes it has been a little challenging navigating some of the roads,” she said. “But it’s always been something that I have paid careful attention to and just cheered everybody on.”

Pierog said she’s been knocking on a lot of doors lately, referring to getting signatures to seek reelection Nov. 5, 2024.

“One of the questions that is always asked of me is, ‘Tell me, what does the county do for me?’ ” Pierog said. “This truly is one of the most exceptional examples of exactly what the county does for the taxpayers’ dollars.

“The Bliss Road Realignment Project really shows how the county worked together in an efficient, cost-effective manner to bring these kinds of services to Kane County.”

Transportation Director Carl Schoedel said he didn’t start at the county until 1997, a year after work on the realignment and roundabout started.

“But it won’t mean that I won’t accept full credit,” Schoedel said, drawing laughter. “Funding was entirely local for this project, so that means we did not – despite our best efforts – secure any state or federal funding.”

Transportation Deputy Director Thomas Rickert thanked the Batavia Park District for its cooperation in the project.

“Your coordination with [engineer] Jennifer O’Connell … over the last decade in order to make sure we were facilitating this project and bringing it to fruition,” Rickert said. “We thank the forest preserve because of all the help they gave us in protecting the right of way during the early 2000s.”

The work also included a separate tree contract. The transportation department worked with the forest preserve to plant 400 trees in the Elburn Forest Preserve, Rickert said.

“Those trees now have been in place and established for two years and growing,” Rickert said.

The project replaced the traffic signals with a roundabout, improved ditch and stormwater detention and provided access and a crosswalk for future park development, a naturalized detention basis and a culvert over Lake Run Creek, county documents show.

Kane County Board member Mark Davoust, R-St. Charles, who is chairman of the transportation committee, recognized those involved in the project: O’Connell, who was project manager and chief of design; Kane County’s chief of construction Dave Boesch; Rickert; Schoedel; Jay Coleman of Baxter and Woodman, the design engineering firm; Quincy Mawers and Wayne Wall of Martam Construction; and Rick Kipp of construction engineering firm V-3 Co.