Marengo Lands $4.6M to Finish the I-90 Utility Push

The empty fields by the Route 23 interchange have frustrated Marengo for years. The exit opened in 2019, and the businesses everyone expected never showed. A new state grant is, in theory, what changes that.

The $4,649,628 award from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity pays for the final stretch of water and sewer lines running out to the interstate. That last piece matters more than it sounds. Without utilities at the site, manufacturers and logistics companies won't look twice, no matter how good the highway access is. They want land they can build on immediately, not a spot where they'd wait years for the pipes to arrive. Get the infrastructure in, and the corridor finally has something to sell.

Marengo competed statewide for the money, taking the second largest capital award in the program's first round and one of just seven sites funded out of a $25.9 million pool. The grant covers the final phase outright, which the city says should ease the financial burden that would otherwise fall on local taxpayers.

It caps a decade of work. The interchange, still the only one in McHenry County, opened in 2019. The state put up nearly $27 million in 2022 to start the lines. Then in 2025, McHenry County loaned the city $750,000 to cover its required local share — the match these state grants demand before they'll release funds — which qualified Marengo for another $3 million.

From there, the build-out runs on a set schedule:

• June 2026 — utilities reach Unilock
• October 2026 — lines stretch to approximately Anthony Road
• End of 2028 — the corridor connects all the way to the tollway

For residents, the city points to a few payoffs: industry along the corridor would broaden the tax base that funds schools and city services, bring jobs closer to home, and come with water and sewer systems rebuilt to last. More than 170 acres sit ready to develop once the lines are in.