U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas 3

[CaliforniaTraffic]

What have other City traffic engineers determined about the locations required for ADA curb ramps (wheelchair ramps) at local residential street intersections? For the older 4-leg intersections, it is very simple in that ramps should go on all four curb returns. But the trend in California for the last few decades in new subdivisions has been to eliminate 4-way uncontrolled intersections and require a subdivision map to be drawn with T-intersections or 90 degree L-shaped knuckles. The building industry holds that only the curb returns require a ramp, thus meaning the straight side of a T-intersection gets no wheelchair ramps, or very oddly a knuckle has only a ramp on one corner. To me this is not compliant with ADA and a route needs to be provided across the local street. What has been the interpretation of other agencies?

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

In the municipality that I work (Chesterfield, MO a sub of St. Louis), we have a large number of T intersections and a few L intersections. For new construction I believe that we install ramps at all of these intersections so the street can be crossed at ramps unless there is a spacific technical reason not to, which of course should be rare.

Most of what I do is work on older streets. When working on these streets we generally add/create 3 ramps at a T intersection. Exceptions include when driveways, trees, inlets, etc prevent adding a ramp, when the intersections are very close together, i.e. a lot of side streets off of a main street, or when there is poor site distance. In these cases we may skip an intersection and place the third ramp at the intersections on either side.

As for L intersection, we try to provide a paired crossing of the road on one side or the other of the L.

Hope this helps and I'm interested in what others are doing.

 

[francesca]

In Clarksville, TN, the ADA ramps are a recent introduction, and are only required in subdivisions with sidewalks. At 4-leg intersections, only one ramp is installed at each corner, with a caveat on the drawing to ensure that the sidewalks are in compliance.

 

[Maury]

In the Chicago suburbs, ADA ramps are provided at any point where the sidewalk intersects a curb. The intent is to provide handicap access wherever there is pedestrian traffic.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

The Access Board has a technical assistance division. I have found them to be helpful in the past. Nothing like getting it from the horse's mouth.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
phone: (800) 872-2253 (voice) or (800) 993-2822 (TTY),
weekdays 10 - 5:30 EST (Wed. 10 - 2)
e-mail: ta@access-board.gov
fax: (202) 272-0081

Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guide (ADAAG) (Called a guide, but adopted as regulations by the Justice Dept.)

http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/about/index.htm

Accessible Rights-of-Way: A Design Guide (guidance - not yet adopted as a regulation)

http://www.access-board.gov/prowac/guide/PROWGuide.htm

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[skillz]

I would follow the access board number that AC gave you, they have been very helpful towards me in the past when calling about new requirements.

I agree with Maury that in the Chicago area they are typically installed anywhere that the sidewalk intersects the curb. However, I still have not figured out if they are required at alley crossings or not. I believe that IDOT does not spec detectable warnings at crosswalks, but they may not be caught up on all ADA specs. We installed them at all alley crossings this year only because the work was incidental to the sidewalk item. However, we also used stainless steel warning ramps which you can press into the concrete, and at $300 or so a pop, it can get pricey if you do every alley crossing on a large reconstruction project. Of course if ADA requires it, then you have to install continue installing them...