Huntley officials are finalizing preparations for what they say is the village’s largest-ever public improvement project next spring. 

The road improvements may ultimately play a key part in providing Huntley with its first-ever commuter rail connection to Chicago, Rockford and other northeastern Illinois cities. 

Huntley officials have called the planned widening of 6,500 feet of Kreutzer Road, a mile south of downtown, a “transformative project (that) will improve traffic flow and safety by widening and realigning Kreutzer Road from Route 47 to Haligus Road.” 

The project, which is Huntley’s largest public improvement project, will cost $16 million, according to village engineer Timothy Farrell. Huntley has budgeted $2.6 million and has secured more than $10.5 million in federal and state grant funding. 

Planned improvements include reconstruction and widening of the road, with one lane in either direction and center turn lanes. Curb and gutter and storm sewer work will also be done. An 8-foot wide multiuse path will also be built along the north side of Kreutzer throughout the length of the improvements. 

The work will also “correct a dangerous bend in the road as it approaches a railroad crossing,” the village said.

An existing at-grade crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad will be realigned to improve safety at what is currently a sharp horizontal curve in the roadway. 

Farrell said he expects the Illinois Department of Transportation to let out construction bids in either September or November, with construction to start next spring. 

The road work could well be the preparatory step in building a new train station as part of the planned Chicago-to-Rockford commuter rail line. Rail service between Chicago and Rockford ended 44 years ago, when the “Black Hawk” line ceased operation due to eroding funding levels and a decades-long shift to the automobile and expressways. 

In July 2023, Huntley was chosen as a stop on the Chicago-to-Rockford commuter rail line, which will run from Union Station in downtown Chicago to a new station located between Main and Winnebago streets in downtown Rockford. Work on the line is scheduled to begin this year and be completed in 2027. 

Huntley Village President Tim Hoeft told the Northwest Herald newspaper earlier this year that the village has been preparing for its own train station for more than a decade. Hoeft said the village already has purchased land and completed “multimillion dollar infrastructure projects” in the downtown area in anticipation for the train station. 

“We targeted the downtown area when the state brought the potential platform to our attention,” Farrell said. “That’s still our primary location.” 

However, other village officials have expressed concern regarding limited parking availability at the downtown site. 

Notably, a transit-oriented development study done in 2009 looked at Kreutzer Road as one of two possible station sites. No recommendations were made then regarding any train platform, but the village’s new Comprehensive Plan, which was approved by the Village Board in late April, suggests that the Kreutzer Road site may be a more likely option. 

“At the time, the (TOD) study did not recommend one site over the other, but rather examined the challenges and potential for both sites in terms of transit-oriented development,” the new Comprehensive Plan states. “However, given the pattern of growth and development that has occurred within the Village since 2009, the most feasible location for a site is on Kreutzer Road.” 

Whether the new platform is sited in downtown Huntley or at Kreutzer Road will depend on a ridership assessment being done on the planned Amtrak route, Farrell said.  

“If the ridership numbers come in higher, we can either not do a platform (downtown) or find another site,” Farrell said. He stressed that that is “a decision for the elected Village Board.”  

Whatever the final decision is on where the station platform is located, the rail connection to Chicago and Rockford will be a major positive, officials say. The McHenry County Economic Development Corporation has said that the Huntley stop “will not only boost tourism, but also will boost the economies of Winnebago, Boone and McHenry counties.” 

The new service will feature two daily round trips per day between Rockford and Chicago, each taking approximately 95 minutes. 

Driving to Huntley from Chicago is currently a 50-mile drive that takes at least an hour on I-90, and usually more. While the train will not necessarily cut any time off the trip, it can reduce commuter stress, lower commuter parking costs, and result in fewer vehicles on the expressway and other roads.  

Huntley’s closest commuter rail options currently are in Crystal Lake and the Big Timber stop in Elgin, both about 11 miles away and 20 minutes in good traffic.  

Scott Speegle, IDOT’s passenger rail marketing director, said last year that the key improvement needed to move forward on the construction phase of the new rail line is upgraded connections to existing infrastructure on the Union Pacific and Metra tracks in Elgin.