With the widening of Algonquin Road through his town seemingly inevitable, Barrington Hills Village President Martin McLaughlin says he and other officials are pushing for it to be done as a scenic parkway rather than a typical four-lane state highway.
McLaughlin said he envisions Algonquin Road becoming Barrington Hills’ smaller-scale version of the George Washington Memorial Parkway near the nation’s capital or Merritt Parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The section of Algonquin Road in question cuts through Cook County’s Spring Lake Forest Preserve from Dundee Road west to Route 25 and is a key east-west artery between the Northwest suburbs and the northern Fox Valley.
“It should kind of honor the open space, natural setting that the Cook County Forest Preserve is trying to maintain and what we’re trying to maintain in our community,” McLaughlin said of the widening planned by the Illinois Department of Transportation. “That’s what we’d like to see.”
IDOT has yet to secure funding for the proposed Algonquin Road expansion, but planning is well underway. Since the process began in late 2017, IDOT has decided to explore two widening alternatives, as well as choosing to keep the thoroughfare as is with just routine maintenance.
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