Downtown Joliet storm damage recovery to take several weeks

The storm-related damage that blew metal off the top of the Joliet Junior College City Center Campus building onto the roof of the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 will keep both facilities closed for at least weeks.

The two buildings were damaged in a storm that produced high winds in downtown Joliet on Sunday, a day before a larger storm did more damage in the city and many areas of Will County the next day.

The museum has no reopening date while still assessing its damages and preparing for a complicated rebuilding project for a 1930 building that lost part of a decorative parapet.

The JJC building is expected to remain closed three to four weeks because of damage to its HVAC system.

Most of the museum damage was to its roof.

“But it’s not like any other roof,” museum Executive Director Ron Romero said Friday. “It’s got concrete and rebar. It’s like rebuilding a bridge.”

The parapet on top of the building facade also was heavily damaged as the metal from the JJC building crashed down to Cass Street below.

“As an historic landmark, we’re going to do our best to replicate it,” Romero said. How long that will take and what it will involve is still being assessed, he said.

Meanwhile, all the museum artifacts have been moved to another location for safekeeping during the renovations.

What hit the museum was the metal covering for the JJC HVAC system, which otherwise remained intact but damaged.

“While we’re thankful that nothing else on the building was damaged in the storm, the air handlers can’t circulate fresh air, which is required by health codes before the building can be inhabited again,” JJC spokeswoman Kelly Rohder-Tonelli said. “Engineers are working to design a new air system cover with an updated enclosure to prevent future storm damage.”

The repairs are expected to take three to four weeks, she said.

In the meantime, classes that were to take place are either being conducted online or have been rescheduled, Rohder-Tonelli said.

The museum also has made alternative arrangements for its museum store, which Romero said gets hundreds of visitors a week. Many of them are Route 66 travelers who stop in to pick up Route 66 Passports used in a tourist program, he said.

The museum has moved the store to a pop-up location nearby at the University of St. Francis Art Gallery located at 25 E. Van Buren St.