U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
(OP)
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?





RE: U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
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.
RE: U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
RE: U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
RE: U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
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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
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RE: U.S. ADA curb ramps in residential areas
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...