Unsafe Demolition? Old Will County Courthouse Meets Wrecking Ball

JOLIET, IL — After two months of interior demolition work at Will County's old courthouse, the American Demolition Corporation out of Carol Stream began swinging the wrecking ball against the fourth floor and large chunks of concrete were flying all over the place.

On Friday afternoon, Joliet Patch stopped filming a live video of the demolition for obvious safety reasons. Even though Patch's editor was standing outside the enclosed fence, large pieces of concrete were landing along Chicago Street.

At the 1:09 minute mark of my video, you can see broken blocks of concrete flying off the fourth-story of the building.

Fortunately, there were no cars traveling in either direction along Chicago Street between Washington and Jefferson Streets at the time, otherwise the vehicles may have been damaged and motorists could have been seriously hurt or killed.

After the large chunks of concrete landed outside the demolition zone, a team of contractors left their fenced-in area and scooped up the concrete debris that landed near the street.

By late Friday afternoon, their work was finished for the day.

One can only hope that more safety measures are taken next week by the demolition crews.

One of the challenges facing American Demolition Corporation is the fact that there is a small setback around the perimeter of the old courthouse property. The building is surrounded by four downtown city streets and four public sidewalks, and people are walking by the area constantly during business hours Monday through Friday.

In December, Patch reported that American Demolition Corporation, based out of Carol Stream, was awarded Will County government's contract of $1,488,600 to remove the old courthouse, which has been sitting vacant since the end of 2020.