Local coverage
Project conversations across Will County and the Joliet area.
Active coverage depends on independent provider availability -- each community page below covers local housing and site context around Joliet.
Shorewood
Shorewood began as a fishing and resort community called Troy on the Des Plaines River, where an 1845 water-powered flour mill anchored the settlement, and that riverside ground keeps groundwater high.
Local planning notes →Crest Hill
Crest Hill incorporated in 1960 specifically to avoid annexation by the City of Joliet, and a post-WWII building boom shaped most of its residential basements to one construction standard.
Local planning notes →Rockdale
Rockdale was settled by Slovenian and Lithuanian immigrants and incorporated in 1903, and the U.S. Navy built ships along the Des Plaines River nearby, on ground that still sits close to the water table.
Local planning notes →Plainfield
Plainfield grew from Walkers' Grove, a sawmill settlement platted on the banks of the DuPage River in 1828, making it Will County's oldest community, with basements that predate any drainage requirement.
Local planning notes →Lockport
Lockport was platted in 1837 as the Illinois and Michigan Canal's headquarters town, chosen for a 40-foot elevation drop that required canal locks, and that grade still moves water toward the lowest foundations.
Local planning notes →New Lenox
New Lenox traces to a settlement near Gouger crossing in the late 1820s and grew alongside the railroad, but most of its basements date to postwar construction on slow-draining clay.
Local planning notes →Channahon
Channahon takes its name from a Potawatomi phrase meaning meeting of the waters, sitting at the confluence of the Des Plaines, Kankakee and DuPage rivers, where the water table stays close to the surface.
Local planning notes →Minooka
Minooka was platted in 1852 by railroad surveyor Ransom Gardner at the summit, the highest point on the line, so its older core drains better than the newer growth on lower ground.
Local planning notes →