HUNTLEY – One way to know a town is growing up (or at least expanding) is when it builds a bypass off a main artery to relieve growing congestion at a major intersection.
This is the scenario behind the planned extension this year of Kreutzer Road from near Walgreen’s on Route 47 west and north to Main Street in Huntley. Work is expected to begin this spring as soon as the weather permits, according to Victor Narusis, director of business development for the village.
The new roadway will run from the curve joining Princeton Drive and the existing Kreutzer west for about 100 yards, then turn sharply north to connect with another existing section of Kreutzer extending south from Main Street, which will be repaved. In this area, Kreutzer’s only function up to now has been to serve as an access road to the Lions Chase subdivision.
Kreutzer Road is named after one of the families that originally settled in the Huntley area in the 19th century.
The purpose of the project, said Narusis, is to send a significant chunk of north and northwest-bound traffic off 47, reducing the volume of traffic using the 47-Main Street intersection. It is only intended as a partial solution, since there is no bypass planned for southbound traffic.
“When this is done later in the year, this project will form a western bypass from Route 47, just like Haligus Road forms an eastern bypass,” Narusis said. “Anything we can do to reduce the volume of traffic coming to Main and 47 will help.”
The project also includes a roadway extending southwest from Kreutzer to Regency Square near the Heritage facility. But Narusis said that won’t happen until landowners expand their development of the property near Heritage and the Supportive Living rehab facility now under construction.
