More ramps coming to Watertown street corners

Craig Fox, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jul. 4—WATERTOWN — Dozens of orange construction cones have popped up at street corners this construction season.

It's part of an ongoing effort to install ramps at street corners in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But there are more of the ramps getting installed this year because it's a busy road construction season for the city.

With four major street construction projects underway, 150 new ADA-compliant "detectable warning" ramps — a bumpy surface that allows blind people to know they're entering an intersection — are getting installed this year.

The bumpy ramps cost $4,000 each. They are paid through a variety of city, state and federal funding sources.

City planner Geoffrey T. Urda said the city has focused on the program for at least the eight years he's worked for the city.

"It's important to make the city inclusive for everyone," he said.

Thomas M. Maurer, an engineer in the city engineering office, said it's been the city policy to install new ramps whenever the city completes a street project in order to meet current ADA standards.

Those current standards include ramps that have "truncated domes," bumps that "signal visibly impaired people that they're going into the road," said city human resources manager Matthew Roye, who makes sure that the city follows ADA regulations.

To be compliant, he noted ramps must have less than a 2% slope across it and less than a 8.33% slope downward to the street.

Over the years, the ADA standards have changed. Mr. Maurer recalled they were once required to be a different color than the sidewalk and then had to be grooved and now they're ramps with the patterned bumps.

Mr. Urda said the city also plans to put together a long-range citywide ADA plan for sidewalks, city facilities and restrooms.

The projects getting ADA ramps are: 64 ramps on Massey/Coffeen and Court street; 45 ramps along Academy High and Mill streets; 27 along the city's $3.9 million downtown streetscape; and 14 on Franklin and Sterling streets.

On Monday night, the City Council approved $69,942.15 for the Academy, High and Mill Street repaving project that includes new ramps.

The general contractor, Luck Brothers Construction, Plattsburgh, had to remove and lower more sidewalks adjacent to street corners.

That $969,319 milling and repaving project is slated to be completed by the end of the construction season.