The McHenry County Highway Department has confirmed something drivers throughout the county already knew: Traffic is surging.
Drivers know it anecdotally. Now the highway department knows it statistically.
Highway Supt. Mike Magnuson announced last week that the department is nearly finished taking traffic counts on roads throughout McHenry County.
As a result of the numbers that are already in, the county is considering installing traffic lights or readjusting the timing on lights at 15 intersections.
No matter where in the county a person drives, there is more traffic than in 1993, when the department last took countywide traffic counts, Magnuson said.
“Everywhere, there is this increase in traffic,” he said. “Algonquin Road west of Randall Road is building at an incredible rate. We need to seriously look at going to five lanes (from two lanes) out there.
“There are also big increases in traffic in the Harvard area, no doubt due to the Motorola plant. But everywhere you go, there’s more traffic.”
Magnuson’s traffic study shows that 19,100 vehicles a day travel Algonquin Road west of Randall Road, up from 8,900 vehicles four years ago, for a 115 percent increase in traffic volume.
While that stretch and other stretches of Algonquin Road are the most heavily traveled in the county, more than a doubling of traffic volume is small compared with what has happened on some other stretches of county road.
Traffic volume on Lakewood Road between Miller and Algonquin Roads in the southeast corner of the county has grown 1,017 percent, from 550 to 6,143 vehicles a day, according to the highway department study.
At the opposite end of the county near Harvard, volume on Lawrence Road north of Ramer Road has grown 927 percent, from 125 to 1,284 vehicles a day. Volume on Ramer Road east of Lawrence has grown 461 percent, from 600 to 3,367 vehicles a day.
Other stretches of road with notable increases in traffic volume include Alden Road south of McGuire Road in the northwest part of the county (115 percent); Chapel Hill Road north of Bay Road near Johnsburg in the northeast part of the county (75 percent); and Harmony Road between Seeman Road and Brier Hill Road in the southwest part of the county (47 percent).
The county plans to study whether installing traffic lights at some intersections where there are now stop signs could help traffic flow more smoothly.
Those intersections include Wilmot Road and Main Street in Spring Grove; Chapel Hill and Bay Roads near Johnsburg; Chapel Hill and Lincoln Roads near McHenry; River and Bull Valley Roads near McHenry; Bull Valley Road and Green Street in McHenry; Harmony and Marengo Roads near Huntley; Walkup and Pleasant Hill Road snear Crystal Lake; and Walkup and Edgewood Roads near Crystal Lake.
Intersections with traffic lights already in place also may be worked on to smooth the flow of traffic. Magnuson said he wouldn’t be surprised if the county re-times signal lights at Rakow and Pyott Roads and at Rakow and Virginia Roads in Crystal Lake.
Traffic flows also are being studied at the Lake in the Hills intersections of Pyott Road and Oak Street, Algonquin and Lakewood Roads, Algonquin and Frank Roads; and at Algonquin and Square Barn Roads near Algonquin.
Magnuson said even if the county does not widen any roads, there will be an impact on the highway budget, because traffic volume has a direct effect on how long roads and bridges can go without repairs.
“The more traffic, the more maintenance,” he said.
