Cars travel east on Bolz Road near the Longmeadow Parkway’s new bridge that’s not done yet east of the Fox River. (Paul Valade | Staff Photographer)
Standing at the dead end of a private road just west of the new Longmeadow Parkway bridge over Route 31 is the convergence of all the love and hate for the decadeslong effort to create a new Fox River crossing in northern Kane County.
The private road ends with a panoramic view of some of the key improvements the 5.6-mile Longmeadow project brings. There will be less rush-hour traffic congestion, new business development, and access to the Cook, Kane and McHenry counties’ borders, all within minutes once construction ends.
But while overlooking that progress from the private road with a group of people wearing neon green Kane County Division of Transportation construction vests, there is the distinct feeling of being watched by some of the neighbors who long opposed the project.
“You have to kind of keep an eye out,” said county board member Drew Frasz. “Some of these people are not our biggest fans.”
That’s nothing new for Frasz. As chairman of the county board’s transportation committee, he’s spent the entire construction process defending the project and answering criticism, including from some of his fellow board members. To him, when the project is finished, it will be the culmination of the plans and desires of all the communities affected by it.
Driving the parkway, Frasz points to land set aside by community leaders in Algonquin and Carpentersville who envisioned a Longmeadow that fuels a new heyday for their communities.
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