Speed-limit reductions proposed on McHenry County roads

Several McHenry County roads soon could see speed-limit reductions, although a County Board committee recommended against a majority of the proposed changes.

The county’s transportation committee took up the proposals on four stretches of road Wednesday morning:

• Blivin Street from Route 12 north for about ⅓ of a mile in Spring Grove.
• McConnell Road from Lily Pond Road to just west of Country Club Road near Woodstock.
• Pyott Road between Oak Street and Willow Street in Lake in the Hills.
• Spring Grove Road between Sunset Road and Ringwood Road in the Johnsburg and Spring Grove area.

The Pyott Road proposal, which would lower the speed limit from 50 to 45 mph, was before the committee last year. It didn’t get enough votes then and didn’t pass Wednesday. But since last year’s committee vote, the county has changed the rules, so that now even recommendations against speed-limit changes from the transportation committee still will go to the full County Board for consideration.

As for Blivin Street, County Board member Carl Kamienski said he talked to the Spring Grove police chief about the proposal, which would lower the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph.

“He has no clue why we spent money for this study,” Kamienski said, referring to a speed study that was conducted.

He said the chief didn’t recommend a lower speed limit.

Scott Hennings, the county’s assistant director of transportation, said the speed studies are done by staff, not an outside contractor.

County Board member Brian Sager was the only yes vote on all four speed-limit reductions. He asked the staff to explain the rationale for each.

“We look to staff to make those recommendations,” Sager said.

But for McConnell Road – the only proposal to get the thumbs-up, although in a modified form – the committee opted for a smaller speed-limit reduction than proposed, recommending the limit be lowered from 55 to 50 mph rather than the proposed 45 mph.

On Spring Grove Road, the proposal is to lower the limit from 55 to 50 mph. Kamienski said he talked to the local police chiefs on that one, too.

“They’re like, this [stretch of road] is quiet,” Kamienski said.

He added the chiefs suggested a different safety improvement would be to install an LED stop signs at Ringwood and Johnsburg roads.

Hennings said the Spring Grove Road corridor contains the Spring Grove and Miller roads intersection, and there was a public meeting later Wednesday about a safety project there.

He said there had been five public meetings about roadwork or transportation projects in the past three weeks, and the largest concern people expressed was traffic speed. Hennings also said there was more support for automated speed enforcement than he thought there might be.

The county conducted four other speed studies, but no changes to the speed limit came from them, according to county documents.

All four speed-limit proposals will go to the County Board for final consideration.