Stone Facade At Will County Courthouse Now Being Replaced: County

JOLIET — It has been more than four years since Will County's elected officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening for the $215 million Will County Courthouse. The courthouse was so impressive that companies involved in its construction were given awards for their work.

The architect of record was Justin Illg of the Wight & Company, the engineer of record for the structural record was Wight & Company and the general contractor was the Gilbane Building Company. The Cold-Formed Steel Specialty Engineer was Michael Holmquist of ClarkDietrich Engineering Services LLC. The Cold-Formed Steel Specialty Contractor was Eli Gonzalez, DBM Services, Inc.

"It's an amazing day for Will County," Will County trial courts administrator Roger Holland told Joliet Patch at the October 2020 ribbon-cutting event.

Now that the new Will County Courthouse is falling apart, scaffolding has been erected around several areas of the courthouse, most notably near the employee entrance along Ottawa Street.

On Thursday, now that the weather has finally warmed up, several contractors were busy repairing or replacing several tiles of defective stone.

One large tile of stone fell to the ground more than a week ago, almost ending the lives of two employees who were about to enter the building when the stone fell and landed just a few feet away. The employees were not injured.

On Friday, the Will County Executive' Office issued the following press release:

The Facilities Department is working with forensic engineering companies to provide an independent analysis of the stone façade on the outside of the Will County Courthouse. Scaffolding has been installed alongside the building to facilitate their investigation, which has already begun. Pieces of the façade have been removed intentionally to install the scaffolding and several more pieces will likely be removed in the area of the incident to facilitate the investigation.

Safety has been a top priority throughout this process. Overhead protection has been installed at all entrances around the building and our department will continue to install additional scaffolding. Additionally, pedestrian traffic has been redirected from the staff entrance to the main entrance out of an abundance of caution.