Don't Blame P.T. Ferro For City's New Parking Lot Mess: Trizna

JOLIET, IL — Joliet Public Works Director Jim Trizna told Joliet Patch that city crews are aware of the settling problems and giant dips at the city's new parking lot directly across from the Rialto Square Theatre on North Chicago Street.

"We're more than aware of it," Trizna told Patch on Thursday afternoon.

Trizna stressed the asphalt surfacing problems were not the fault of the city's hired paving contractor, P.T. Ferro. The Joliet paving company on Rowell Avenue will not be asked to reimburse the city; Joliet also won't be asking P.T. Ferro to fix the problem for free, either.

The paving work for the city's new downtown parking lot cost about $54,000, Trizna said.

"We can't put this on the contractor," Trizna told Joliet Patch on Thursday. "We told them hurry up, we were in a big rush. (Then) we just kept getting more water and water and we paid for it."

P.T. Ferro was pressed by the city to complete the paving in a matter of days because the city wanted the new parking lot ready in time for the city's summer festival season starting with New Orleans North and Star Wars Day.

Those two early June festivals always draw several thousand visitors downtown.

Joliet Patch contacted P.T. Ferro and left a detailed message seeking comment for this article, but the Joliet asphalt contractor did not call back on Thursday. P.T. Ferro has been in business since 1964.

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P.T. Ferro started the work in late May and had the new parking lot done by the first week of June, which met the city's rigid deadline.

Looking back, May was an incredibly wet month and June also had a substantial amount of rain, Trizna said. He said both months had more than 8 inches of rain.

The near-record rainfall totals, Trizna said, created all kinds of settling problems for the city's new downtown parking lot, and that's why practically half of the new parking lot now has large asphalt craters or giant dips in the asphalt pavement.

Trizna said city public works crews will be making some minor fixes over the coming days.

In the spring, he said, the city plans to hire another contractor to do more lasting repairs including resurfacing and leveling it off.

Overall, the city's new downtown parking lot is a great addition, Trizna said, and it's particularly useful for patrons of Rialto Square Theatre events, since it's right across the street.

The city's new downtown lot added about more 40 parking spaces, bringing the total number of parking spaces across from the Rialto to about 75, Trizna said.

Long-term, the city envisions building a multi-million-dollar City Plaza on the property occupied by the parking lot. However, that community development project needs roughly $8 million to $10 million in funds and may not happen for several more years, Trizna acknowledged.

City officials talked about wanting to build the new downtown plaza in 2019, but the City Council did not put any funds for the project in this year's operating budget.

The proposed 2020 city budget also does not include any funds to build the city plaza. The Joliet City Council, about two weeks ago, did vote 7-1 to increase all the downtown parking rates and the monthly fees effective Jan. 1.

Interim city manager Steve Jones wants the anticipated $3 million in new revenue from parking rate hikes to pay for automating and fixing the city's two 40-year-old concrete parking garages. Other city officials are now saying that would be a foolish and wasteful expenditure.