Rialto Reopens And Downtown Joliet's Streets Are Giant Mess: Photos

JOLIET ?When it comes to Joliet, specifically downtown Joliet, it's often one bad thing after another. Since late summer, the Rialto Square Theatre has been shut down amid asbestos problems inside the 98-year-old theater.

Finally, after plenty of tests and back and forth with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Rialto theater is safe for patrons to re-enter the theater and watch their favorite traveling stars take the main stage.

Inside the Rialto, the fun starts back up on Tuesday night as the Vitamin String Quartet takes the stage for a 7:30 p.m. performance. The following night, Wednesday, things will get scary as Haunted Objects Live will bring fans an enchanted evening, also starting at 7:30 p.m.

The Rialto is open, so is everything in downtown Joliet finally back to normal?

Not so fast. Have you tried to drive through the streets of downtown Joliet, lately?

It's impossible.

The streets are being torn up as part of the city of Joliet's $20 million project that will include the construction of a new city square plaza on the former parking lot across from the Rialto.

North Chicago Street, the street where the Rialto is located, is now off-limits to vehicles unless they belong to Austin Tyler Construction. The company has dozens of heavy equipment tearing apart North Chicago Street throughout the work week.

So if you're heading to one of this week's Rialto shows, be prepared to potenywalk a great distance to get to your show.

After all, the city of Joliet's highly anticipated $95,000 motorized tram that will have the ability to shuttle as many as 15 people at a time is still in the assembly line phase in Florida. The city of Joliet's recently purchased tram ? not to be confused with the monorail on the hit comedy show, "The Simpsons" -- won't be arriving in Joliet until sometime next year.