Highway department plans for 2026 construction season, continues public engagement effort on SGSD question

Kirsten Wisniewski | February 25, 2026

The Cook County Highway Department is already gearing up for a busy 2026. The department will take on several major construction projects, in addition to tackling the issue of whether to continue the Subordinate Governmental Service District (SGSD) program.

Construction projects

Highway Engineer Robbie Kimmel-Hass told WTIP that so far for 2026, the highway department has five larger-scale projects planned, plus a smaller project. Several of the projects are planned for the east end of the county, especially the Arrowhead Trail area.

East end projects

Near the end of the Arrowhead Trail, Kimmel-Hass said the department would be replacing a bridge on McFarland Lake. He said he expects that the $1.8 million project to begin in June, and be completed in August.

Further down the Arrowhead Trail, residents will see two projects this summer. The 2.5 miles of pavement already on the Arrowhead Trail will be replaced, and, in an effort to address issues with flooding, a culvert on Otis Creek will be replaced with a larger box culvert. Kimmel- Hass said he expects that those projects will take most of the summer, beginning right after Memorial Day, or once the seasonal restrictions around hauling on county roads is lifted.

A third site on the east end of the county will also see construction this summer. Chicago Bay Road will be resurfaced and the culverts will be replaced. Kimmel-Hass said that funding for the project comes from the local transportation sales tax.

Both the Chicago Bay Road project and the project to repave the Arrowhead Trail and replace the Otic Creek culvert will be done by Ulland Bros. Inc. In both cases, the bid that the company made for the work was below the estimated cost.

The smaller scale project is also on the east end of the county. Kimmel-Hass described it as a “half project,” because it will be limited to resurfacing just a portion of the North Road in Hovland.

With the volume of projects that the department will be working on in the area of the Arrowhead Trail, Kimmel-Hass said that the department will hold a town hall on the east end before construction starts to give area residents an idea of what to expect.

Other projects

Elsewhere in the county, the department has two additional projects already planned for 2026. In Grand Marais they will be extending the multi-use path along the Gunflint Trail. The path currently stops at Great Expectations School, and Kimmel-Hass said the plan was to extend it to run behind the Law Enforcement Center and Highway Department, then come down 5th Ave at the Recycling Center.

Finally, as the county works to secure funding for repaving the last 10 miles of the Gunflint Trail, already on this year’s project list is work on five miles just past Trail Center between County Road 92 East and County Road 92 West. Bids for the five mile project will be opened in March. Kimmel-Hass said that this project will also include community engagement, as the work will disrupt some of the traffic on the Gunflint Trail.

“I’d be a liar if I said construction season was ever easy or headache-free or would never be annoying, and you won’t notice us. No, there’s definitely going to be some type of delay that’s going to happen when you’re up there,” he said. “It’s the nature of construction, and I think it’s our job to at least inform people, and do our best to let people know when those delays are, and then also trying to mitigate them the best we can.”

Kimmel-Hass pointed to the 2025 Mill the Hill project, which included extensive work on the Gunflint Trail on the northern edge of Grand Marais, as an example of a large project that the department was able to complete in a single season. He said that for the large projects on the 2026 calendar, the hope is to finish them within one construction season.

SGSDs

In addition to the road projects slated for this year, the county is also working on a plan to address managing the SGSD program. Kimmel-Hass has advocated for the dissolution of SGSDs, a program that allows property owners on some non-county roads to pay a special assessment in exchange for the Highway Department acting in an administrative capacity to arrange for maintenance on those roads. After hearing from some property owners in the SGSDs, the county board agreed to create a work group to help decide what the best way forward is both for SGSD members and for the county.

At the Feb. 24 meeting, Kimmel-Hass presented a proposed charter for the work group. The charter establishes a mission for the group, defines the scope of the work they will take on, the timeline for those tasks, and who will be part of the organization.

Kimmel-Hass said that while the group will not craft official policy, it will act in an advisory role for the board. They will be charged with gathering information about what both the counties and representatives from the SGSDs believe is not working, and come up with some potential solutions.

“Our purpose as this working group is really not to say dissolve, or not to say keep, but to say, here’s all the issues we’ve identified,” Kimmel-Hass explained. “Here’s the solutions that we’ve come up with. Now, Board of Commissioners, what do you think of this?”

The group will be comprised of up to 18 members. It will include two County Commissioners, two county staffers from the MIS department and Auditor’s office, nine representatives from the SGSDs (one each), three members of the public who are part of Homeowners Associations, Property Owners Associations, or Road Associations, and one member of the public representing the industry perspective, such as a contractor who works in road maintenance.

When Kimmel-Hass first spoke to the board about the working group at the most recent Committee of the Whole meeting, he suggested a smaller group, with fewer representatives from the SGSDs. That shifted, however, in the interest of having more public involvement. “I think it’s important, and the commissioners made that clear as well, that we want to make sure everybody at least has the opportunity to have their voice heard,” Kimmel-Hass said.

Highway Engineer Robbie Kimmel-Hass spoke with WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski live on Daybreak. Audio of that interview is below.