Briarwood Road: Closed North of Route 176 For Construction

Briarwood Road will be temporarily closed north of Route 176 in Crystal Lake from Monday, June 18 to Friday, June 22.

The leg of Briarwood south of Route 176, which leads to West School and the neighborhoods near the lake, will remain open.

The intersection is in the midst of a construction project which will add new traffic signals, street lights and turn lanes on all four lanes. A portion of Briarwood on the south side of Route 176 will be straightened slightly, city officials said.

“This intersection has a high accident rate,” said Abby Wilgreen, assistant city engineer for Crystal Lake.”It’s a very dangerous intersection as there are no left-turn lanes.”

The construction project is the result of a joint effort between the city of Crystal Lake, which owns the north leg of Briarwood; DORR Township, which owns the south leg of Briarwood; and the Illinois Department of Transportation, which maintains Route 176.

The overall cost of the improvements is $1.7 million. A federal grant from the Surface Transportation Program is paying for $1.4 million of the work. The remainder of the costs will be split three-ways between Crystal Lake, IDOT and Dorr Township, Wilgreen said.