John Bays Weighs His Options After Wall's Collapse At Parking Deck

JOLIET, IL — Five days after a 50-foot section of concrete wall collapsed and landed on downtown Joliet's Scott Street, businessman John Bays said he's planning to act fast in addressing last week's unexpected disaster at his Bays Executive Centre.

Nobody was injured when the section of concrete gave way last Thursday evening. On Tuesday, Joliet Patch found Bays in downtown Joliet and interviewed him. For now, Bays' private parking garage remains closed and a section of sidewalk is also cordoned off to keep pedestrians away.

Bays said he had a structural engineer inspect his parking deck, and that engineer told him it's structurally sound. However, Bays said he is having additional engineering studies on the other concrete walls throughout the multi-level structure.

"They're saying I can open the deck up, but I don't want to do anything until I know it's 100 percent safe," Bays said.

Bays is also gathering cost estimates from three different companies to determine how much it would cost him to tear down the entire parking deck, he said.

"I'm really on top of it," Bays remarked. "I need to know everything's safe, but I am going to do something fast.

"I don't care if it's going to cost $1 million or $10 million, I'm going to make it right."