Woodstock will pay $16M for Route 47 widening. What will McHenry’s share be for Route 31?

Mayor Wayne Jett texted Woodstock Mayor Mike Turner during Monday’s McHenry City Council meeting with a question about Woodstock’s upcoming Route 47 reconstruction project.

Jett and the City Council were discussing how to allocate budgeted city funds for the 2025-26 fiscal year. And the city leaders wanted to know if the amount Woodstock was asked to pay by the Illinois Department of Transportation for its portion of the Route 47 project had increased during the planning stages.

“What if IDOT comes back” with a higher price tag for the Route 31 project, Jett asked city staff. “They have already increased the price once.”

So far, McHenry has been told it will need, at minimum, $7.5 million for its portion of the project expanding Route 31 between Route 176 in Crystal Lake and Route 120 in McHenry. Those costs include streetlights and relocating utilities, City Administrator Suzanne Ostrovsky said.

Currently, McHenry has $3.6 million set aside – mostly from federal American Rescue Plan Act monies – in an interest-bearing account, but the city could add just under $3 million from its Capital Maintenance and Replacement Fund. That line item is funded by an ComEd electricity tax approved by McHenry in June 2022.

Regarding Woodstock’s talks with IDOT, Jett said Turner replied that due to inflation, Woodstock’s costs went from $6.4 million in 2022 to the current $16 million, a figure Woodstock has agreed to pay toward expanding Route 47 to two lanes in both directions from Route 14 and Route 120. IDOT expects to begin that project in earnest later this spring.

Work has taken place along the Route 31 corridor to remove trees ahead of the relocation of utilities, including power lines, in the 2026-27 fiscal year, Ostrovsky said. The eventual widening is schedule to conclude around 2030.

“That is a big nut we will have to pay for soon,” Jett said.

Alderman Andy Glab, 2nd Ward, said he’d prefer to see the Capital Maintenance and Replacement Fund monies go toward street repaving now, instead of banking the money.

“I don’t want to see that money just sitting there,” Glab said, suggesting instead it be transferred “to get more [road] projects done in the next two years ... then maybe skip a year of roads if we have to” to fund Route 31 instead.

The ComEd electricity tax brings in about $1 million a year, Ostrovsky said, noting the funds are earmarked for existing infrastructure and maintenance projects.

“The fiscally responsible thing to do it to put it towards Route 31,” Jett, the presumptive winner of last week’s mayoral election, said following the meeting. “We don’t want to be in a situation like Woodstock, looking at two times the amount” due for the road. “We don’t want to be in that situation.”

Overall, the 2026-27 McHenry budget suggests general fund operations budget expenses of $31.3 million on $32 million in revenue, Ostrovsky said. The City Council is expected to vote on that budget at its April 21 meeting.