The township is bigger than any one village
Troy Township sits in the far west part of Will County. A 2024 Road District report to the Will County Board says it encompasses the entire Village of Shorewood and parts of Channahon, Crest Hill, Joliet and Rockdale, and covers 36 square miles (Troy Township Decennial Report). That does not mean the Township maintains every street in those places. The same report says a township highway commissioner maintains roads and bridges outside federal, state and other jurisdiction, and that the Road District is responsible for about 90 lane-miles of streets, plus 27 cul-de-sacs and four high-traveled frontage roads (same report).
The Township’s road-project page keeps the line clear: questions about roads in unincorporated Troy Township go to Highway Commissioner Thomas R. Ward at 815-405-3378. It then points residents toward the City of Crest Hill, the City of Joliet, the Village of Channahon, the Village of Minooka, the Village of Shorewood, Will County and IDOT for those governments’ own road work (Troy Township road projects). If you are inside one of those municipalities, their public works or forestry rules apply, not the Township pickup rules below. Shorewood’s parkway program is on our Shorewood page. City of Joliet parkway trees are covered in Joliet parkway tree rules and Joliet Township vs. City trees.
Branch pickup is for unincorporated residents only
Troy Township’s Tree Branch Pick-Up page limits the service to residential homes in the unincorporated areas of the township (Troy Township branch pickup). Collection is the first and third Monday of every month, beginning with the first Monday in April and ending around the third Monday in October. If Monday is a holiday, collection moves to Tuesday. No call-in is required (same page).
The page is blunt about what will not be taken:
- No whole-tree jobs. Pickup is for branches from routine trimming or storm damage. Entire trees, or landscape removals taken down by a resident or a private contractor, will not be picked up. That ban includes debris from removing shrubs, stumps, root balls and logs (Troy Township branch pickup).
- No grass, leaves, root balls, stones, mulch or other yard waste mixed in, and no poison ivy (same page).
- Size and stacking: keep branches as long as possible, but no larger than six inches in diameter. Stack them on the ground, neat and parallel to the road, all facing the same direction, in piles up to 3 feet high by 3 feet wide. Crews will take up to four piles per household per collection day. They will not go on private property to move debris. Thorny branches must be tied and stacked separately. Nothing in bags or containers. Have them out by 7:00 a.m.; the Township says it will not double back (same page).
If a pile is stacked wrong, the Township says you will get a restack notice and the branches wait until the next collection day, if they are then stacked right (same page). Plan tree trimming around those Mondays. If a whole tree is coming down, haul-away has to be part of the job; see tree removal in Joliet.
Leaf vacuuming, also unincorporated only
Starting around the middle of October and running through November, weather depending, the Highway Department vacuums leaves for residents in the unincorporated areas (Troy Township leaf vacuuming). Rake leaves to the edge of the street so the machine can reach them. Do not bag them, and do not put them in ditches. Keep twigs, branches and grass out of the piles; the Township says branches and twigs can damage the vacuums. No call-in is needed. Two vacuums run every day until crews catch up. An early snow or ice event can suspend leaf pickup while roads are maintained (same page).
Leaf season can overlap with branch pickup, which is why the leaf page repeats the warning not to mix the two (Troy Township leaf vacuuming). After a windstorm, start with our storm damage page, then stack only what the branch program will actually take.
Who to call
The Highway Department office and recycling center are at 25358 Seil Road, Shorewood, IL 60404, at 815-828-5275. The listed cell is 815-405-3378, the same number the road-project page gives for Highway Commissioner Ward (Troy Township branch pickup; Troy Township road projects). A stump left after a private removal is yours to deal with; pickup will not take stumps (Troy Township). That is a stump grinding question, not a Township haul.
Sources
Checked Nov. 11, 2026. If a City rule has changed since, the City’s page wins.