Cook County Highway Department looks ahead to busy 2026 construction season

With its 2025 construction projects complete, the Cook County Highway Department is now turning its attention to a full slate of projects planned for 2026.

“2026 is another busy one,” Cook County Highway Engineer Robbie Hass said in a November interview with WTIP.

The highway department’s upcoming projects include improvements to the Gunflint Trail, Arrowhead Trail, and Chicago Bay Road.

Starting mid-May, approximately five miles of the Gunflint Trail between Co Rd 92E and 92W will be resurfaced, and the deteriorated roadbed will be improved. The highway department will also replace culverts.

“I think that project is going to have a lot of impacts on it. Some of those culverts are 10 feet below the road,” Hass said. “So you can imagine digging that out and then also making sure traffic can move.”

While construction is underway on the Gunflint Trail, the highway department anticipates using Co Rd 92 as a partial detour to limit impacts during culvert replacement and to reduce interruptions to vehicle traffic. Construction is expected to last through October.

The project is funded by two grants: the Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP) and Rainy River Headwaters funds. The LRIP is a state grant the county was awarded, with $1.5 million allocated toward the project. The highway department also secured $67,000 in funding from the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District to replace the culverts and improve connectivity to water bodies.

Closer to Grand Marais, along the Gunflint Trail, the highway department will begin work on a multi-use trail, a 10-foot-wide asphalt walking and biking trail. The multi-use trail will connect to the existing trail in front of Great Expectations School and stretch along the Gunflint Trail towards 5th Ave W, then turn down 5th Ave W to connect to the existing sidewalk near the Cook County Recycling Center.

Construction is expected to begin in early June and be completed in August or September.

Further east, near Hovland, the highway department has several projects scheduled to begin this spring.

The Arrowhead Trail Improvement Project includes resurfacing 2.5 miles of road, culvert replacements, and increasing the size of the culvert at the Otis Creek crossing to address flooding issues. The project is funded through an annual state aid allocation and bridge bonding. The highway department anticipates using a temporary bypass at the Otis Creek crossing during construction.

Towards the end of the Arrowhead Trail, the Pine River bridge, built in the 1960s, will be replaced. The highway department secured over $1.6 million in state bridge bonds and town bridge bonds for the project. The new bridge will be a single-span prestressed concrete bridge with timber railings.

The highway department will also resurface Chicago Bay Road and replace existing culverts. The road will not be striped, and the Hovland dock parking area will remain gravel. The project is funded by local Transportation Sales Tax (TST) funds. Construction will begin in early July and continue through the fall.

Kalli Hawkins January 12, 2026